Thread by @alarm_phone

🟠Also in the Central Mediterranean Sea: Black Lives Matter!

Alarm Phone Central Mediterranean Regional Analysis, 1 January - 30 June 2020.

#CivilFleet #FreedomOfMovement #FerriesNotFrontex #BridgesNotWalls

alarmphone.org/en/2020/07/06/…

Over the past 6 months, January to June 2020, the Central #Mediterranean has continued to be a zone of violence, human rights abuses, disappearance and death, as well as a stage of struggles for #freedomofmovement, both by people fleeing #Libya & #Tunisia and by the #CivilFleet.

In 2020, so far, the #AlarmPhone has supported 77 boats in distress in the Central #Med, carrying ~4,500 people. This does not include dozens of boats that called us but where we were unable to establish sufficient contact to retrieve crucial information, such as GPS positions.

About 3,350 people who had reached out to us reached Europe, either autonomously or due to the incessant efforts of the #CivilFleet: @seawatch_intl
#Moonbird
@openarms_fund
@RescueMed
@seaeyeorg
@SOSMedIntl
@maydayterraneo

🧡

Unfortunately, over 1,100 of the people who called us were intercepted by the so-called Libyan coastguards & by merchant or private vessels & forced back to #Libya. We also learned of several shipwrecks and tragedies at sea where hundreds of people were confirmed dead or missing.

In the last months, with the #Covid19 excuse, #EU authorities have reinforced repressive border controls through EU air surveillance, engaging merchant vessels or ghost fleets in illegal push-backs, & strengthening the illegal operations of the so-called Libyan coastguards.

Despite #EU attempts to militarise borders, to deter people’s movement & to facilitate the capture and detention of those crossing the sea, thousands of people have bravely managed to evade capture & to reach Europe, either autonomously or through the support of the #CivilFleet.

Find our full Central Mediterranean analysis here!

#BlackLivesMatter also in the #Med! 🖤🧡🖤

alarmphone.org/en/2020/07/06/…