The Civil Fleet Podcast

In today's episode, we speak with Doctors Without Borders' (MSF) search-and-rescue team leader RICCARDO GATTI and certified midwife KIRA SMITH . Riccardo and Kira tell us about their last rescue mission aboard MSF's rescue ship, the Geo Barents, in which they saved over 180 lives. They also tell us about the 10 dead bodies they recovered from one of the overcrowded boats they came across. ---Show...

In today's episode, we speak with Albert Mayordomo, the head of operations for the Open Arms refugee rescue organisation. Albert tells us how France ended the Open Arms' previous mission before it began with legal tricks, delay tactics and banning the ship from all of French ports. He also talks to us about some other times European states have stopped the Open Arms' from operating, and about the...

IN this episode we speak with Iñigo Mijangos, chairman of Humanitarian Maritime Rescue (SMH), the Basque NGO that operates the Aita Mari refugee rescue ship. Inigo spoke to us a day before the Aita Mari set sail for the central Mediterranean. The ship had been stuck in a kind of bureaucratic purgatory and was blocked from leaving port since its last rescue mission in June because the Spanish port...

In today's episode, we speak with Kim from Channel Rescue, a human rights monitoring organisation based along the south coast in Britain. She tells us why Channel Rescue was started, what its activists do on their observation missions, and how they ensure the British authorities are carrying out their legal duty to rescue people in distress. We discuss the British government's handling of the emer...

In today's episode, we speak with Sea-Eye spokeswoman Sophie. She tells us about saving 409 people aboard the Sea Eye 4 in May, what happened when the ship encountered the Libyan Coastguard during a rescue operation, and how the Italian authorities misused safety laws to stop the ship going back to sea. Sophie also talks about why Sea Eye's previous ship was named after Alan Kurdi, a three-year-ol...

In today's episode we speak with Natalie Gruber, the co-founder of Josoor, a solidarity network monitoring human rights abuses at the land borders between Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, and supporting the migrants and refugees trapped there. She tells us how the organisation was founded, how it works with 'people on the move' to document human rights abuses carried out on them, and how the Greece go...

In today's episode, we speak with Simon Campbell from the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) about the violence people face attempting to reach Europe along the Balkan route. He tells us about BVMN's work documenting the human rights violations in the region, the lengths the countries there are willing to go to prevent people on the move from breaching Fortress Europe, and the widespread, i...

In today's episode we speak with Hannah Wallace Bowman, the head of mission on the Sea-Watch 4 refugee rescue ship She talks to us about the ship's last mission, in which they saved the lives of over 450 people and how they witnessed the Libyan Coastguard violently intercept a refugee boat. She also tell us about the dispiriting nature of being detained in Italy for the second time with a fully eq...

A diplomatic rift last week between the governments of Spain and Morocco resulted in the Spanish military tear-gassing children and brutally forcing hundreds of people back across the border at Ceuta. In today's episode we speak with Irina, an activist from Spanish NGO No Name Kitchen , who tells us what she witnessed at Europe's border with Morocco. She also tells us how No Name Kitchen has been...

IN TODAY'S episode, we speak with Alarm Phone activist Deanna. She talks to us about the refugee shipwreck in the Mediterranean last month that took the lives of 130 people. Though the disaster may look like a catastrophic dereliction of duty, Deanna tells us that the authorities behaved exactly how the European border regime wants them to. Deanna tells us why the Maritime Rescue Coordination Cent...

In today's episode we speak with Marie, an activist from the human rights monitoring ship Mare Liberum. She talks to us about the systematic human rights abuses the Greek, Turkish and EU authorities are carrying out on the people trapped in Greece's migrant camps and at sea. Marie tells us about the lengths the German government has gone to ensure the Marie Liberum cannot sail. We also hear about...

In today's episode we speak with Rosa, a member of the activist network Alarm Phone. She tells us how the organisation operates its hotline for refugee and migrants in distress at sea and about the Greek coastguard's violent treatment of people crossing over from Turkey. --- Show notes --- If you like what the Civil Fleet is all about, you can find more on civilfleet.com Here's a glossary of some...

In today's episode we speak with Sascha, a former head of operations on the Iuventa refugee rescue ship that saved around 14,000 lives between August 2016 and 2017. Sascha tells us what it was like working on the ship and how Italy's far right movement got the intelligence services to spy on their activities and how the cops seized the ship. --- Show notes --- If you like what the Civil Fleet is a...

In today's show we talk with Felix, a spokesperson for Sea Watch — one of the NGOs operating in the Mediterranean. Felix tells us about Sea Watch, it's ships (the Sea Watch 3 and 4) and it reconnaissance planes (Moonbird and Seabird). We also speak about the events of two weekends ago, when the Moonbird's crew saw a merchant ship attempt to return refugees back to Libya — an act which would have b...