The Civil Fleet Podcast

In today's episode we speak with filmmaker  Sonita Gale , about her award-winning documentary film Hostile .    Sonita tells us how Britain's "hostile environment" stretches much further back than 2012, when then home secretary Theresa May coined the term, and is rooted in the British Empire.    We hear how successive governments — both Labour and Conservative — have created an inhumane system for...

In today's episode, we speak with migrant rights campaigner and policy expert Zoe Gardener about the UK's Illegal Migration Bill .    Zoe tells us how the government plans to reject the asylum applications for anyone who enters the country irregularly, including victims of trafficking and slavery, to house them in old military bases, and to deport them to a third country.    ---Get in touch--- Twi...

In today's episode we speak with Jelka and Amara . Amara was one of 108 people who were rescued by an oil tanker, called the El Hiblu 1, in March 2019 after escaping Libya. The European authorities ordered the El Hiblu 1's crew to wait for the Libyan coastguards to come and take the rescued back to the war-torn country.  But, the rescued convinced the crew to sail north instead. Amara, along with...

In today's episode we speak with Francesca Cancellaro , one of the human rights lawyers representing the Iuventa 4 — four activists on pretrial in Italy after saving over 14,000 lives in the Mediterranean.  Francesca updates us on the pretrial, walks us through some of the many irregularities prolonging it, and explains why the case is so important for the future of activist-led rescue missions. ...

In this episode we speak with Hanad Abdi Mohammad , a Somalian refugee who has gone through hell.  In 2020, Hanad and about 33 others were abandoned by Turkish human traffickers in a dinghy in the Aegean Sea.  They calle for help, but instead of saving their lives, the Turkish coastguards pushed their boat towards Greek waters. When they were eventually rescued by the Greek coastguards and taken t...

In today's episode, we speak with Klaas van Dijken , one of the co-founders of the investigative journalism organisation Lighthouse Reports .  Klaas talks to us about two recent investigations he and his team worked on: • How asylum seekers are held in secret prisons on commercial ships to facilitate illegal pushbacks from Italy to Greece, and • How refugees are being arbitrarily detained and tort...

In today's episode, we speak with Dalia , an activist from the Lithuanian human rights and medical aid organisation, Sienos Grupe (Border Group in English). She tells us about the conditions faced by people trapped at Lithuania's border with Belarus, which has been sending people towards the EU since 2021, and how Russia may also be involved.  Dalia describes how Sienos Grupe are helping to preven...

IN THIS episode we speak with Bethany Rielly , the home affairs reporter at the Morning Star newspaper, about the scandal surrounding the Manston migrant centre in Britain.  Manston is a former military base in Kent, which opened as a processing centre earlier this year for those who arrived into the country by crossing the Channel.  Bethany tells us how people are being detained in awful conditio...

In today's episode, we speak with SOS Humanity 's human rights observer, Mirka Schäfer . Mirka tells us about the organisation's first rescue mission aboard the Humanity 1, and how it saved the lives of over 390 people in the central Mediterranean last month We hear about how the crew found 207 people in Malta's SAR zone who had been adrift at sea with no food and water for days.  After the crew b...

In today's episode, we speak with David Llado , a search-and-rescue coordinator for the Spanish rescue organisation Open Arms . David talks to us the organisation's new ship, the Open Arms Uno, and runs us through what happened on its first mission.  He tell us why, despite the fact that the new vessel has gone through more official checks than any other ship in the Spanish fleet, the authorities...

IN today's episode, we speak with Yambio David Oliver , founder of the campaign group Refugees in Libya .    He tells us why he had to flee his home in South Sudan, about working in a gold mine in Chad and why he was forced to make the deadly desert crossing into Libya.   We hear about his time in the North African country, where he was treated like a slave, forced to join a militia, and made mult...

In this episode, we hear from Alice and Hamid from Borderline Lesvos about their work on the island running a welcome centre for registered refugees. They tell us how the NGO helps people adjust to life on the island, and helps them with things like bureaucracy, housing and the Greek language. We hear about Moria camp 2, and how the kids languishing inside there are struggling with their mental he...

One night in May this year, 110 people were crammed onto a wooden boat somewhere along Libya's Mediterranean coastline.  The boat was much too small for them all, and none of them had been given a life jacket. But they, much like the tens of thousands of others who have attempted to reach safety in Europe, must have been desperate to escape that war-torn country.  The people eventually made it int...

In today's episode, we speak with lawyers Alexandros Georgoulis and Dimitris Choulis about the controversial legal case they worked on known as the Samos 2 .   The Samos 2 are two Afghan refugees who tried to reach Greece by boat with 22 others in November 2020. Their boat got into trouble as it neared the island of Samos and capsized.   The Greek coastguards were aware of the incident, but did no...

In today's episode, we speak with Syrian refugee Hasan about why he was forced to flee Syria and how he was treated by the authorities while attempting to reach Europe.  Hasan, which is not his real name, is now safe and living in London. He was also detained here in Britain after reaching the country and was held in one of the notorious former British army barracks while his asylum claim was bein...

In today's episode, we speak with Kathrin Schmidt , a rescue worker who saved the lives of 14,000 refugees in the Mediterranean Sea aboard the Iuventa five years ago.  This Saturday, May 21, she and three others from the ship are due to appear in an Italian court on charges of facilitating illegal entry into the country. They could all face 20 years behind bars.  The charges are bogus, of course,...

In today's episode, we speak with transparency activist Luisa Izuzquiza from the German campaign group Frag Den Staat (Ask the State).  She tells us why Frag Den Staat and Sea-Watch are launching legal action against Frontex, the European Border and Coastguard Agency. She also explains why Frontex is an inherently violent institution that is incompatible with human rights, and why it should be abo...

In today's episode, speedboat driver Brendan talks to us about the Sea-Watch 3's latest rescue mission in the Mediterranean, and what happened when he came across a shipwreck.  He also talks about how the Libyan Coastguards also handed over the people they'd saved over to his speedboat.  --- Show notes --- For more on Sea-Watch, visit: sea-watch.org/en Follow Sea-Watch on Twitter here: @seawatch_i...

In today's episode, Doctor's Without Borders (MSF) UK advocacy officer Sophie McCann talks to us about the British government's Nationality and Borders Bill.  She tells us how the Bill borrows from the worst parts of immigration policies around the world, and how it could cause more harm to people seeking asylum in Britain.  Sophie also talks about the physical and mental harms caused by Australia...

In today's episode, we speak with Leona of the Louise Michel , a refugee rescue ship funded in part by the elusive British street artist Banksy. During the Louise Michel's last mission in the central Mediterranean in January this year, the crew witnessed the EU-supported Libyan Coastguards shot at the people they had intercepted as they tried to swim away from them.  Leona tells us all about that,...

This month marked the five-year anniversary of the EU-sponsored agreement between Italy and Libya. The deal led to millions of Euros bing spent on the so-called Libyan Coastguard and thousands of people being pushed back into Libya's condemned detention centres.  In today's episode, Italian journalist Lorenzo D'Agostino talks to us about some of the lesser known consequences of that deal, like how...

In today's episode, we speak with Iason Apostolopoulos , a search-and-rescue coordinator with Italian refugee rescuers Mediterranea: Saving Humans . We speak about the organisation's latest rescue operation aboard the Mare Jonio, and how the Italian cops put Mediterranea under investigation last year for supposedly facilitating the arrival of "illegal migrants." In July 2021, Iason was scheduled t...

In today's episode we speak with Clare Moseley, the founder of Care4Calais, a volunteer-run charity working with refugees in the UK, France and Belgium. She talks to us about the charity's joint legal challenge with the Public and Commerical Services (PCS) Union against the UK government's proposed policy of pushing asylum seekers crossing the Channel back to France. Clare also tells us about the...

In today's episode we speak with Madi Williamson and Sean Binder, activists that have been targeted by the Greek authorities for their involvement with civilian-led refugee rescues. Sean — and several others who worked with Emergency Response Centre International on the island of Lesbos — was detained for months on charges of money laundering, people smuggling, and espionage. He could face years i...

In November, three prominent human rights groups filed a report to the International Criminal Court (ICC) into possible crimes against humanity being committed on migrants and refugees in Libya. The groups — European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Lawyers for Justice in Libya, and the International Federation for Human Rights — also warned that the EU's migration policies have...