I’m currently in Palermo, Sicily, where the @seaeyeorg’s Alan Kurdi rescue ship is about to begin another mission out on the Mediterranean, off the Libyan coast. We’ll be at sea for up to a month.
I’ll update on this thread.
irishtimes.com/news/world/eur…
I’ll update on this thread.
irishtimes.com/news/world/eur…
My first view of the Alan Kurdi ship on Thursday...
& the view waking up on it this morning. The crew is still doing training & expect to leave Palermo port in the next few days.
German charity @seaeyeorg was founded in 2015. To date the organisation has been behind more than 14,000 rescues over more than 60 missions, including 428 rescues with the Alan Kurdi ship.
Another morning on the Alan Kurdi rescue ship. It’s having some crewing & engine issues so we’ll still be in port for another few days.
Last night volunteers & crew watched Styx on rec of the ship captain, who said it motivated him to begin rescue work. He realised "you can go there & help. I’m a sailor, I can go there with a sailing boat, I have the captain’s licence, I have everything." youtube.com/watch?v=4fREBi…
The Alan Kurdi @seaeyeorg crew training for rescues in Palermo port, Italy. 1/
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...& we’re off! After a week of crewing & technical issues (& a few Christmas miracles), the Alan Kurdi has finally left port.
My latest from the Alan Kurdi, which is now back in port in Sicily with technical issues. On Friday, the ship was waved off by the mayor of Palermo.
irishtimes.com/news/world/eur…
irishtimes.com/news/world/eur…
“At this moment there is another genocide in Libya & in the Mediterranean Sea," said Leoluca Orlando, who is famed for fighting the mafia. "It’s a genocide and we will not be able to say to our grandson or granddaughter that we did not know.”
“To let these people to stay in concentration camps means to finance criminality bc the persons taking care of these migrants in Libya are the same persons paid by the migrants to cross the sea,” said Leoluca Orlando about the EU/Libya deal & refugees.
irishtimes.com/news/world/eur…
irishtimes.com/news/world/eur…
Alan Kurdi rescue ship weathering a storm in Mazara del Vallo, while preparing to go out in the Mediterranean Sea again. #christmas
Christmas dinner on the Alan Kurdi.
Getting ready to sail.
& we’re off again.
Ten nationalities. Twelve volunteer crew. Meet some of the people giving up their holidays to patrol the Mediterranean Sea on board the Alan Kurdi rescue ship.
"I don't like [that] in this world there is so much inequality between people. We are exploiting Africa and Asia, other places, then we decide these people can't choose another type of life. I don't think it's right," says Italian doctor Caterina Ciufegni.
"I don't see refugees, I don't see illegal persons, I only see people," lifeguard instructor Salvador Perello says. "When you meet them you know that they're like you, like my mother, like my daughter, like my friends and they are dying because Europe doesn't want to help them."
"It's often nowadays a discussion about European values. The values are not destroyed by the migrants. We are destroying them ourselves," says Hartmut Frank, a 76-year-old former military parachuter & toxicology professor from Germany. aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/v…
