ECHOES N°17- CIVIL MRCC

Platform of Hope

The so-called "Miskar case", the extraordinary rescue of 32 people from a gas platform in the overlapping Tunisian and Maltese Search and Rescue (SAR) zones to Lampedusa in March 2025, contains a deeper meaning for us in these terrible times: never give up even in desperate situations. Who could imagine that the tenacity of the people on the move, together with the chain of solidarity structures in the Central Mediterranean, could lead to such an amazing outcome?

Breaking normalization! This slogan was and still is at the center of our narrative to express the need to defy more offensively the unbearable conditions at sea. How to combine daily solidarity with elements of civil disobedience? How to use the coming months and mainly September - with the transnational chain of actions in reference to the 10th anniversary of the summer of migration - to re-politicise maritime space? With Echoes, we will try to accompany the different steps of this struggle...

In 2025:

• 14.683 people arrived to Italy and Malta by sea, many of whom arrived autonomously (UNHCR figures up to April 27)
• 3.377 people were rescued by the Civil fleet from almost 70 boats in distress (CMRCC figure up to April 28)
• 6.620 people were pushed back to Libya after they were intercepted by the EU- supported so-called Libyan Coast Guard (IOM figure up to April 19)

• 294 people have been reported dead or missing on the Central Mediterranean Route (IOM figure up to April 19)

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