Mediterranean Sea

A ship chartered by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been detained by Italian port authorities on administrative grounds, delaying its return to lifesaving search and rescue activities in the central Mediterranean, the...

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announces today the relaunch of its search and rescue activities in the central Mediterranean to save the lives of refugees and migrants attempting the deadly sea crossing from Libya. Since 2015, MSF medical teams working on search and rescue...

The last few days have produced one of the most lethal episodes in the central Mediterranean Sea so far this year, with more than 100 people dying at sea in four separate shipwrecks within less than 72 hours. Six NGO rescue ships remain blocked in port by Italian and European authorities, as MSF...

SOS MEDITERRANEE and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are reeling from the announcement by the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) that it has been forced to revoke the registration of the search and rescue ship Aquarius, under blatant economic and political pressure from the Italian government. This...

Aquarius has received formal permission from the Maltese authorities to enter the port of Valletta. MSF is relieved that a place of safety has been found for the 141 vulnerable people rescued on the Mediterranean. We welcome the news that Germany, France, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain have also...

The rescue boat Aquarius, run in partnership between SOS MEDITERRANEE and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), sets sail today from Marseille after an extended port call. Aquarius is heading back to the Central Mediterranean in order to render assistance to persons in distress at sea. “The Central...

Over 600 people attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean have drowned or are presumed drowned in the last 4 weeks alone including babies and toddlers. These tragedies, which represent half of the total deaths so far in 2018, took place as there were no longer non-governmental organisation (NGO...

In a nightmarish day on the Mediterranean yesterday (28 January, 2018) , 99 survivors from a sinking rubber boat were rescued by the Aquarius, a search and rescue vessel run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and SOS MEDITERRANEE, but an unknown number of men, women and children are missing,...

Médecins Sans Frontières formally informed the Italian Ministry of the Interior on Monday (31 July) that it would not be signing the Code of Conduct for NGOs operating rescue ships on the Mediterranean. “Although we are unable to sign this code of conduct in its current form, MSF already respects...