News

Alarm Phone: Central Mediterranean Analysis, 1 July to 31 December 2023

There were more deadly incidents in the Channel in 2023 due to the new 'Stop the Boats' deal. Increased funding for the French has meant more police, more violence on the beaches, and thus more of the dangerously overcrowded and chaotic embarkations in which people lose their lives.

One year ago a dinghy shipwrecked in the Channel. Approximately 48 people were onboard travelling from France to the UK in search of protection. Four of them are confirmed to have died, while we estimate five more to still be missing at sea.

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Regional Analysis, 1 March - 30 September 2023

Report by Alarm Phone Dakar on the criminalisation of migration in Senegal

Interview with activists from the Alarm Phone

Joint Statement

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Regional Analysis – One year after the Melilla Massacre

After the Pylos shipwreck, the violence at Europe's border in the Aegean continues

Continuous violence against those trying to escape Tunisia by boat

Alarm Phone: Central Mediterranean Analysis, 1 January to 30 June 2023

Joint Statement

Joint Statement by Sea Watch and Alarm Phone

Press Release

Open letter by over 180 human rights organizations and initiatives together with Tima Kurdi, aunt of Alan Kurdi.

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Regional Analysis, November 2022 - February 2023

Joint Statement by Alarm Phone, Sea-Watch, Mediterranea Saving Humans and EMERGENCY

Channel regional report

Testimonies from refugees in Tunisia about their protest sit-in at the UNHCR in Tunis and its violent eviction

Joint Statement by Civil Search And Rescue Organisations and migrants solidarity networks

Joint Statement by Alarm Phone, Mediterranea Saving Humans and Sea-Watch

Joint Statement

Solidarity statement for the survivors, and the relatives, friends and community members of those who did not survive

Press Statement

Joint press release by PRO ASYL, borderline-europe and WatchTheMed Alarm Phone

Alarm Phone: Central Mediterranean Analysis, 1 July to 31 December 2022

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Regional Analysis, July - October 2022

Statement regarding the death of a 2-month-old baby on Lesvos on December 15, 2022

This article originally appeared in “Voices of Struggle – 8 Years Alarm Phone”

Testimony by a single-mother about a pushback on 19 September 2022 near Rhodes

A joint statement by Alarm Phone, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Sea-Watch.

Alarm Phone Anniversary Statement

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Regional Analysis, 31 March 2022 - 30 June 2022

Alarm Phone Central Mediterranean Analysis, 1 January to 30 June 2022

Including update from 5 Aug 2022

A personal account of one of the pushbacks experienced at the Greek-Turkish border

For more than 48 hours we are again in contact with a group of 28 Kurdish refugees from Syria (among them several children) who are stranded on an islet in the river of Evros near Soufli. 

Κοινή δήλωση από τις οργανώσεις Aegean Migrant Solidarity, borderline-europe, Can’t Evict Solidarity, το πλήρωμα του Iuventa, το Νομικό Κέντρο Λέσβου και το Watch the Med Alarm Phone.

Joint Statement

Joint Statement

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Regional Analysis, 1 November 2021 - 28 February 2022

Joint Statement by Alarm Phone & Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN)

Alarm Phone - Central Mediterranean Analysis, July to December 2021

Women and LGBTQI+ Report 2021

Solidarity Statement from Chania

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Regional Analysis, 1 July - 31 October 2021

Urgent call to support the refugee protests in Tripoli

Alarm Phone Central Mediterranean Analysis, 1 January to 30 June 2021

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Regional Analysis, 1 April - 30 June 2021

By Lorenzo D'Agostino

A report by Mediterranea Saving Humans, Sea Watch, WatchTheMed - Alarm Phone

A joint statement by Alarm Phone and Mediterranea Saving Humans

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Route Regional Analysis, 1 January - 31 March 2021

Alarm Phone Report: One year of pushbacks and systematic violence in the Aegean region, Feb 2020 - March 2021

By Women In Solidarity House (WISH) Lesvos

Alarm Phone: Western Mediterranean Regional Analysis, 1 October - 31 December 2020

Alarm Phone: Central Mediterranean Analysis, July - December 2020

Alarm Phone: Aegean Cases Summary, 22 - 24 December 2020

A Commemoration of 14 people who drowned on 2nd January 2020 in the deadly Aegean Sea

Call for commemoration and for action

The invisible shipwreck of 9 February 2020

Aegean Cases Summary, 9 - 14 November 2020

Alarm Phone - Western Mediterranean Regional Analysis , 1 June - 30 September 2020

Alarm Phone, 28 Φεβρουαρίου – 30 Σεπτεμβρίου 2020

Alarm Phone, 28 February - 30 September 2020

Alarm Phone Press Release

by Said

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

Press Release

Alarm Phone, 1 March - 31 May 2020

Alarm Phone Press Release

by Nello Scavo

Press Release

Alarm Phone Press Release

Alarm Phone - Women and LGBTQI+ Report, April 2020

Alarm Phone Press Release

Alarm Phone Press Release

Alarm Phone, 1 November 2019 - 29 February 2020

Alarm Phone Press Release

Alarm Phone, 18 June 2019 - 19 January 2020

Alarm Phone Press Release

Alarm Phone Press Release

Salinia Stroux - How Greek and Turkish authorities use push and pull-backs under the eyes of Frontex and NATO to systematically hinder people on the move from reaching protection in Europe, thereby putting these lives at further risk.

Alarm Phone, 1 October 2019 - 31 December 2019

Alarm Phone 8-Week Report, 28 October - 22 December 2019

Maurice Stierl & Hagen Kopp

Nina, Lisa & Laura

Maurice Stierl & Miriam Edding

Marion Bayer

Press Release

Alarm Phone - 8-Week Report, 2 September - 27 October 2019

Alarm Phone - Western Med Regional Analysis, 1 August - 31 October 2019

Press Release

Alarm Phone, 1 July - 30 September 2019

In light of today’s meeting in Malta where five EU interior ministers convene to discuss a relocation quota for migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, we issue this collective statement to demand the immediate release of all NGO rescue ships

Alarm Phone 8-Week Report, 8 July - 1 September 2019

1 June - 31 July 2019

Alarm Phone 8-Week Report, 13 May - 7 July 2019

18 March - 30 June 2019

18 March - 18 June 2019

Joint Statement

Alarm Phone: Western Med Regional Analysis, 18 March - 31 May 2019

Alarm Phone 8 Week Report, 18 March - 12 May 2019

Joint Statement coming from the civil SAR fleet.

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 4 February - 17 March 2019

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report - 24 December 2018 - 3 February 2019 

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 12 November - 23 December 2018

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 1 October - 11 November 2018

4 Years of Alarm Phone, shaped by a myriad of personal stories of struggle and survival.

Alarm Phone 4 Week Report, 3. – 30. September 2018

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 23 July - 2 September 2018

By Kiri Santer

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 11 June – 22 July 2018

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 30 April - 10 June 2018

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 19 March – 29 April 2018

Alarm Phone 6 Week Report, 5 February - 18 March 2018

Alarm Phone 8 Week Report, 11 December 2017 - 4 February 2018

21 Migrants started from a beach south of Tangier towards Spain early on 3rd of December. Only 18 of them could be safed after hours. An avoidable catastrophe.

Alarm Phone Six Week Report, 30 October - 10 December 2017

Alarm Phone 2 Month Report 16th January 2017 – 19th March 2017

NGOs who rescue people from drowning at sea are encouraging smugglers who profit from dangerous Mediterranean crossings, Frontex Director Fabrice Leggeri told the German newspaper “DIE WELT” on Feb 27, 2017.

More than 5,000 lives lost in the Mediterranean in 2016 and several Shipwrecks already in 2017 – Stop the Mass Dying at Europe’s maritime Gates!

Instead of increasing rescue capacities, the EU is concentrating its efforts on deterring unwanted travellers. In late October, the EU’s naval operation EUNAVFOR MED/Sophia has started to train the so-called Libyan coast guard on their vessels, showing them how to do the dirty job of preventing travellers from leaving Libyan waters.

While thousands of tourists, mainly from the Global North, cross the Mediterranean on ferries with ease each year, others have to risk their lives when they want to cross over to the European side.

In the past two months, the period that this report covers, the WatchTheMed Alarm Phone was frequently alerted to situations of distress in all three regions of the Mediterranean Sea. We were engaged in 38 distress cases, of which 18 took place in the Central Mediterranean, 7 in the Aegean Sea and 13 in the Western Mediterranean (please find links to the individual reports of the past two months below). While in most cases the safe arrival of all travellers could be confirmed, in some cases we had to witness the loss of life and human rights violations.

During the interception the migrants’ boat capsized. The survivors witnessed that the Marine Royal did not rescue all passengers, but only 5 of the 8. The Marine Royal then left the three dead bodies behind.

Despite mass drowning and illegal push-back operations by the Greek coastguards in the presence of Europe’s border agency Frontex, we experience how EU institutions, national governments, and the mainstream media remain largely silent. Whereas past mass shipwrecks caused at least some reactions, even if often hypocritical ones, the silence that we now witness points to the normalizing of border cruelty and migrant deaths.

Following accounts given by the survivors, why was a rescue operation not immediately started by the Turkish Coast Guard after it first arrived on scene at the GPS location?

The captain in charge of the Greek Coastguard vessel shouted at the migrants: "I will kill you if you come here again." He requested this be translated and quoted word by word.

EU politicians and institutions will publicly express their sorrow about the many fatalities. They will call for policy-changes and the further militarisation of the sea. They will again blame the smugglers and seek to reinforce deals with authoritarian regime. However, every shipwreck and every death of the past years is a consequence of exactly these European actions and inactions.

The EU and Death at Sea: The calculated and monitored dying in the Central Mediterranean

While Idomeni camp is evicted and the Aegean route is blocked: Another mass dying as direct consequence of EU migration politics?

Arrivals by boat on the Greek islands have increased again in the last two weeks

Contested spaces, contested times – Still struggling in real-time alongside Refugees and Migrants!

Those threatened by deportation, detention and border violence have risen up in self-organised protest. Also we are not getting tired to raise our voices against those dehumanising practices and will continue to struggle for the opening of borders and the freedom of movement for all.

We cannot find words to express our anger, grief and disbelief about these current developments in the Aegean region. More forceful than ever, the EU deploys every means available to deter migration movements and, in the process, is responsible for the unabated dying at sea, and human rights violations within and beyond European territory on a mass scale.

While the European Union, its border agency FRONTEX and NATO have launched a war against unwanted migrants in the Aegean region, people on the move remind European leaders “we are human beings”, and ask them to open borders, as in a recent protest in a camp in Lesvos.

Statist attempts have caused yet another fatal shipwreck: On Sunday the 6th of March, at least 25 travellers died off the Turkish coast, after their wooden vessel had capsized

More and more people are currently arriving in Idomeni and with difficult weather conditions the situation will further worsen if Macedonia, under the pressure of EU member states, remains unwilling to open its borders to allow people to move on.

One traveller died on the 19th of February, when the Moroccan navy rammed a boat while trying to intercept it.

We ask for that in order to respect the dignity of the victims/survivors but also to maintain dignity ourselves, so that we can create a community and society in which the privacy and dignity of all people are valued and respected.

For the Freedom of Movement and Equal Rights for All! Campaign Newspaper from the transnational Project Alarmphone

"Many of the protesters voiced the demand for ‘Ferries for all!’ which is also a slogan of a campaign that the Alarm Phone has now relaunched: ‘Ferries not Frontex’."

"On a daily basis, reports about capsized boats and drowned travellers reached us and in several cases the Alarm Phone was directly alerted to shipwrecks with dozens of fatalities."

Perspectives on struggle and solidarity

In the past week, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 37 distress cases in the Aegean Sea and to 1 case in the Western Mediterranean Sea.

Despite the desperate attempts of the European Union to re-stabilize its crumbled border regime, it seems to us that only bad weather conditions can prevent people on the move from crossing the sea border to the Greek islands – and not national border guards or Frontex’ forces.

Dozens of travellers died when seeking to overcome the Aegean Sea this week.

In the last two weeks, we were informed about or directly witnessed at least 7 maritime accidents, with more than one hundred deaths, including many children. Not least due to the EU-enforced presence of Turkish police forces at the coast, travellers are forced to take ever more lengthy and dangerous routes

Alarm Phone demands immediate transfer of all refugees stranded on the Greek military island Farmakonisi – Travellers stuck on the island face inhumane conditions

Around 13 pm we received information through "Caminando Fronteras" Twitter account that 11 dead bodies had been found by the Moroccan authorities and feared them to belong to the missing boat.

The situation on the island of Farmakonisi is particularly dramatic, as the island is uninhabited except for the military stationed there. Without any reception infrastructure on the island, arriving people are neither fed, nor given water or shelter.

Establishing a connection to a Smartphone on the boat would enable us to document and thus scandalise push backs. As the Strait of Gibraltar where people try to cross is only 14 kilometres and has internet coverage, establishing such a crucial connection is possible!

As the rescue vessel had arrived at the spot prior to the accident, why did it not act immediately but waited for almost an hour until the boat had capsized?

We dealt with 38 emergency situations in the Aegean Sea and 1 in the Western Mediterranean Sea. On Wednesday the 11th of November, yet again, many people died at sea. 14 refugees, including 7 children, drowned in Turkish waters when their vessel capsized.

Most importantly, both the distress situations at sea and those on land can be avoided. Once again, the Alarm Phone wants to call for a radical change in European border politics: Only the possibility to enter Europe through safe ways will end the deaths in the Mediterranean.

Last week’s dramatic events have once again demonstrated that there is no alternative to opening the borders of Europe in order to stop the numerous and unbearable deaths at sea.

In a shipwreck on Wednesday 14-15 people went missing near Samos and are feared dead and on Sunday a vessel collided with a rock near Lesvos and the bodies of 1 woman and 2 children have already been found and 10 more are still missing. There have been circulating news account of more tragedies, including six more deaths and another person gone missing. Another gruesome tragedy occurred in the Central Mediterranean Sea, presumably with more than 70 casualties. At least 43 bodies were washed up on Libyan shores and another 30 people from the shipwreck are still missing, also feared dead.

Welcome to Europe and Alarm Phone Statement about the Situation on Lesvos Island / Greece

"In the past two weeks the Alarm Phone witnessed awful and inacceptable forms of violence committed against travellers at sea. In the Western Mediterranean we directly witnessed how several groups of travellers were forcefully intercepted and detained, with one group being even deported to the Moroccan border to Mauretania. In the Aegean Sea, travellers informed us about six attacks on boats in Greek territorial waters."

"While we are confronted with a lot of despair, we have also been inspired uncountable times by the willingness to overcome the sea and to move on to desired places throughout Europe."

"When governments shut down train lines, people started to march instead, occupying highways, breaking through police lines, and thereby enacting their freedom of movement."

This long summer of migration in 2015 has clearly shown that barbed wire fences, military forces and other measures of deterrence cannot stop human mobility. The recent crossings of ten thousands of people have demonstrated the permeability of borders and have led to the (maybe only momentary) collapse of the Dublin system and other control mechanisms of the border regime of the European Union

Alarm Phone Press Release, 5th of August 2015 Distress at sea and endangered lives due to coastguard actions? Evidence shows attacks on migrant boats in the Aegean Sea where engines were removed and boats punctured by coastguards

Against a new dimension of left-to-die-policy at sea

This information are for people who are considering to cross the sea between Morocco and Spain. Our intention is neither to deter people from attempting to cross, nor to encourage them, but rather to provide objective information and to share experiences about risks, rights, and vital safety measures to take at sea.