10 years of civilian search&rescue at sea.
#SOSMEDITERRANEE releases its Ten-Year Report and a Manifesto calling to restore proactive SAR in the Central Mediterranean.
43,078 people assisted
457 operations
Two ships. One mission.
bit.ly/Ten_year_rep...
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We recovered the survivors including women and unaccompanied minors, and brought them on board the #OceanViking for care.
Survivors suffered from cold stress, seasickness and fatigue.
There are now 100 people onboard slowly recovering and participating in protection activities.
Ville Maali / SOSMEDITERRANEE
Ville Maali / SOSMEDITERRANEE
Yesterday, as we were heading towards #Ancona, the assigned Place of Safety, we received an alert from @alarmphone.bsky.social about a wooden boat in distress 30NM away with 64 people on board. After receiving green light from Italian authorities, we rescued the drifting overcrowded boat.
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Survivors, who come mainly from Sudan, include 8 unaccompanied minors. They report spending two nights at sea after fleeing #Tripoli.
We recovered them weak and very cold. They were exposed to strong gasoline vapours and show signs of intoxication.
They are now slowly recovering.
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Last night, after receiving an alert from @alarmphone.bsky.social we sailed south and found a small rubber boat drifting in the middle of high waves, in the Libyan Search and Rescue Region.
We brought back 36 people to safety on the #OceanViking.
Eventually Italian Coast Guard later confirmed the rescue.
Approx 100 people survived.
Every life saved at sea depends on coordination between independent aerial monitors, authorities, and #SAR assets.
When information is shared and #legal instructions are given, people survive.
Tess Barthes / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Tess Barthes / SOS MEDITERRANEE
#ALBATROSSUNO located a boat in distress 60nm SE of Malta. A merchant vessel diverted to assist - Maltese authorities ordered her to stop. We witnessed her change course away.
How despite our assessment can a RCC instruct a MV ready to assist no to proceed and abandon people?
Without independent aerial monitoring in the Mediterranean, people vanish in silence. Together with @hpiswiss.bsky.social , #ALBATROSSUNO flies to bear witness and ensure safe rescue at sea.
EU member States must stop funding illegal interceptions.
Tess Barthes / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Tess Barthes / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Several people were rescued by civil SAR vessels and the Italian Coast Guard, including a woman who gave birth on board a rubber boat.
Some of the boats we spotted were on fire, others were drifting, half-submerged, with no engine and no markings. A sign of prior interceptions.
Tess Barthes / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Tess Barthes / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Tess Barthes / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Between 27 Feb. & 1 March, #ALBATROSSUNO flew for approx 12 hours over the Central Mediterranean, monitoring and searching for distress cases.
We spotted 10 boats and approximately 210 people in distress at sea. Every time, we relayed the information gathered to the authorities.
Interceptions mean returning people to a place of detention, violence and abuse.
Rescue ends with disembarkation in a port of safety. #Libya is not considered a place of safety under international law.
Tess Barthes / SOS MEDITERRANEE
We witnessed the interception by the Libyan Coast Guard of an unseaworthy overcrowded black rubber boat carrying approx 30 people on March 1, while monitoring with our civilian aircraft #ALBATROSSUNO in the Libyan SAR zone. That is not rescue.
Survivors reported severe human rights abuses while imprisoned in #Libya and described alleged coordination between smuggling networks, detention centre personnel and Libyan Coast Guard units that benefit from ongoing #EU funding, support and training.
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
We are relieved to have brought 147 people to safety in #Livorno after three & half days at sea. Yet at least 606 people have already died in the Mediterranean in 2026, the deadliest start of a year since #IOM began recording data in 2014, with many people still unaccounted for.
Max Cavallari / SOS MEDITERRANEE
No #searchandrescue response was launched before the shipwreck. Rescue assets reached the scene only after the tragedy. Judicial proceedings are ongoing. Cutro shows what happens when distress at sea is not met with precaution and prompt rescue. #Accountability remains essential.
Valeria Taurino / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Three years ago, on 26 February 2023, a wooden boat crashed against the rocks and sank a few meters from the shore of #Cutro, Italy. 94 people died, including at least 35 children. The boat had been detected hours earlier without any appropriate reaction from authorities.
Delayed assistance and coordination with #Libyan authorities can result in people being returned to a country that cannot be considered safe. Policies that facilitate interceptions expose survivors to serious harm and undermine #international #maritime #obligations.
Lucrezia Frabetti/ SOS MEDITERRANEE
Lucrezia Frabetti/ SOS MEDITERRANEE
@sea-watch.org Aurora reached the scene minutes before a Libyan CG unit. The 22 people on board were rescued, and one was medically evacuated shortly after. In the #CentralMediterranean, outcomes depend on who arrives first, determining life or death and access to a place of safety
Monday, Feb.23 rescue in the Maltese SRR reflects a broader pattern in the Central Mediterranean. An Italian aerial asset had already spotted the boat. Once on the scene, #ALBATROSSUNO relayed the case to the authorities and to civil SAR actors.
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
As part of its civilian aerial monitoring activities conducted with @hpiswiss.bsky.social, #AlbatrossUNO is carrying out observation flights over the Central Mediterranean. Timely sighting & the presence of rescue assets remain essential to saving lives. No one in distress should go unseen.
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Today, #AlbatrossUNO was monitoring from the sky, and sighted an overcrowded boat in the Maltese Search & Rescue Region, allowing the #OceanViking to rescue 50 people in distress. The information was relayed to the competent authorities in line with international and Italian regulations.
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
The double-decker wooden boat in distress was found in the overlapping Tunisian and Maltese Search & Rescue Region, and the rescue was acknowledged by Tunisian MRCC.
Italian authorities assigned us the distant port of Livorno as a Place of Safety, over 3 days of navigation away
.
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Ville Maali / SOS MEDITERRANEE
Last night, the crew on the #OceanViking performed the rescue of 97 people, including 14 unaccompanied minors, following an alert by @alarm_phone.
Many were dehydrated and two people required medical intervention.
They had left from Zuwarah, Libya, two days earlier.
The findings reveal that widespread and systematic #violations and #abuses against migrants, asylum-seekers, and #refugees persist, perpetrated by traffickers, smugglers, armed groups, and State-affiliated actors involved in migration and border management.
Covering two years, the report echoes the testimonies we often hear on board the #OceanViking. It is a stark reminder of the reality faced by people along the Central Mediterranean route, as EU migration policies increasingly shift rescue responsibilities to countries like Libya.
#UN experts confirm that people in #Libya are trapped in a system of torture, trafficking and abuse. When interceptions return people there, they are exposed to further harm. Strengthening search and rescue and ensuring disembarkation in a place of safety is a legal and moral duty. urly.it/31dy-j
We stand in solidarity with SOS Humanity as its vessel Humanity 1 has been detained after rescuing people in distress at sea. Preventing a rescue vessel from returning to operations risks reducing lifesaving presence in the Central Mediterranean, where its most needed. Read more 👇
Human rights #violations continue to go largely unnoticed in a sea where maritime law is often disregarded. In a context where thousands can lose their lives without witnesses, as seen in recent weeks, #civilian #aerial #monitoring is a lifeline.
The Albatross mission is taking off again.
In partnership with @hpiswiss.bsky.social today we resume flying over the Central Mediterranean to monitor, document, and report on what happens at sea where not enough eyes reach. bit.ly/Albatross_re...
According to the #UN, #Libya and #Tunisia are not safe places for disembarkation. International law (UNCLOS, SOLAS, SAR Convention) requires rescue and delivery to a place of safety. Returns exposing people to torture or arbitrary detention violate the principle of non #refoulement.
