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Nothing to celebrate – Europe’s borders continue to kill!

January 05, 2025

CommemorAction, Dakar, Senegal. October 2024. Photo: Alarm Phone

December 2024, a deadly month in a deadly year. Over the last days and weeks, many deadly incidents occurred along the migration routes in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. While people in Europe and elsewhere have been enjoying the holiday season and end-of-year festivities, Europe’s borders continue to kill. We mourn all those who lost their lives and stand in solidarity with their loved ones.

As Alarm Phone, we support people in distress at sea along different maritime migration routes. In our activism, we directly witness the consequences of the violent European migration regime. We see how people are forced to take longer and more dangerous routes due to ever-expanding border surveillance and policies designed to ‘deter’ migration. We see how people are forced to stay invisible and hide from border guards, which makes their journeys even riskier. At the same time, some of the civil actors who respond to the rescue gap produced by European states’ refusal to rescue people in distress feel forced to end their operations due to the heavy criminalisation they face. In turn, this results in even more deadly shipwrecks and an increasing number of people being killed or going missing on their way to Europe.

Throughout the last month of 2024, many deadly incidents occurred along different routes – from the Atlantic to the Central Mediterranean to the Eastern Mediterranean. It is with great sadness and immense anger that we list the deadly shipwrecks we know of – hundreds of people who lost their lives in December alone, leaving thousands of relatives and friends in great despair and sadness. Even worse, we know that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

While the people who lost their lives are often only reported as numbers, we remember them as people and as individuals, with their own stories, families and friends. We mourn these deaths, deaths that were entirely preventable. These border crimes are the result of a machinery of migration control that costs billions of Euros every year. While it will not stop people from reclaiming their right to move and migrate as they need to, it causes death and destruction.

December 31: At least 6 shipwrecks from Libya and Tunisia

On the last day of the year alone, at least 6 shipwrecks along the Central Mediterranean route caused dozens of people to lose their lives, with even more people missing:

A boat with ~60 people that departed from Libya sank in international waters close to Tunisia on December 31.

Another shipwreck happened off Lampedusa on December 31, with 7 survivors who were rescued to Lampedusa, 20 people are missing. The boat departed from Zuwara in Libya.

One more boat from Libya shipwrecked 45nm off Tripoli at the same day, 20 people are known to be missing.

Three boats which departed from Tunisia shipwrecked: One boat with ~60 people who left Sfax on December 27 cost 7 lives, the survivors were brought to Sfax.

We were alerted to two boats near the Tunisian island of Kerkennah. One boat carried 48 people and capsized – 3 bodies and 20 survivors were found, the rest are missing. The second boat carried 71 people on board. When it capsized, only 24 people survived. 21 bodies were found, everyone else remains missing. In both cases, authorities had been alerted and failed to rescue.

At the end of 2024, the Italian Interior Minister declared that “the preventive measures against departures from Libya and Tunisia are working very well“. It is clear that this is untrue, and that people are still embarking in overcrowded boats due to daily raids from Tunisian police, mostly in Sfax, and the risk of deportation to the desert that people on the move face.  These are not “preventive measures against departures” but a European policy of letting people die far from their coasts.

December 29: Shipwreck off Samos

Greek media reported the sinking of a boat in the area northeast of Samos. 30 people were reported rescued, 12 of which were children. We did not find further information about the circumstances of the shipwreck and if people are missing.

December 27:  Boat missing in the Atlantic

SOS in the Atlantic for a boat with approximately 100 people. They could not be reached. We fear this boat has joined the 131 pirogues that have disappeared in 2024 trying to reach Spain, according to the organization Caminando Fronteras.

December 22:  A deadly disaster coordinated by MRCC Rabat

It is with great sadness that we learned that a rescue operation led to another disaster. On December 18, we informed Moroccan authorities as well as nearby ships about a boat in distress off the Sahara. After several days without updates on the situation, we learned on December 22, that during the rescue operation dozens of people died and only 9 are believed to have survived. Until today, we don’t know any details about the incident. We are outraged and saddened and call for clarification on the circumstances of the deadly operation.

December 20: 8 people killed after being chased by the Hellenic Coast Guard. All of them dismembered by the propellers of the Coast Guard vessel. A ninth person died in hospital a few days later.

In an attempt to intercept a boat carrying an unknown number of people close to the Greek island of Rhodοs, 8 people lost their lives. When the boat of the Hellenic Coast Guard and the boat carrying the travelers collided, people fell into the sea. 18 people were rescued, 8 people died, with a ninth person, a woman, passing away at the hospital a few days later. An unknown number were missing. Some days later it was reported that the survivors of this horror were abandoned to sleep outside on the streets in Rhodos. Volunteers on the island reported to Iasonas Apostolopoulos that “the 8 dead, were all dismembered by propellers, including 3 women and a child.” They also reported that “the entire deck of the coast guard vessel was red with blood. One man was missing half his head from a propeller hit. One of the women was literally in pieces.”

December 19:  Shipwreck in the Central Mediterranean – up to 15 people missing

Shipwreck in the Central Med. Despite our alerts for a boat that was taking in water, rescue did not come in time. Once on scene, the so-called Libyan Coast guard found 82 people. However, up to 15 people were reported missing or dead.

December 14:  Withdrawal of rescue capacity – end of operations for Geo Barents

It is in this deadly month, in which hundreds of people lost their lives at sea, killed by lack of rescue, by being forced to be invisible, by having taken longer and more dangerous routes, that Médecins Sans Frontières announced that they have been forced to end their rescue operations at sea due to restrictive Italian laws and policies. Europe continues its attacks against the ones who migrate and the ones in solidarity with them,  actively creating the conditions that make the Mediterranean and the Atlantic routes towards Europe a mass grave.

December 14:  Shipwreck near Gavdos – up to 40 people feared dead

Near the Greek island of Gavdos, next to Crete, a boat carrying approximately 80 people shipwrecked. 37 people were rescued and around 40 people were missing and feared dead. So far, only 8 bodies have been found.

December 12: 5 people died on the route to the Canary Islands
On December 10, we informed authorities about a boat that left on the 6th of December from Nouadhibou in Mauritania. Two days later, we learned that the boat arrived to the Canaries. However, five people did not survive the long and dangerous journey and had lost their lives. It was another border crime which took peoples’ lives.

December 11: Shipwreck off the Tunisian coast – 9 people died, many more missing

On December 11, we were alerted to a boat carrying 130 people fleeing from the racist climate against black migrants in Tunisia. The group were in severe distress near the Tunisian city Sfax. The boat was reported to have capsized. Later, MRCC Tunis confirmed that 27 people were rescued, 9 bodies were found and many were were missing. We fear they also died.

December 7: Shipwreck in the Western Mediterranean – 9 people missing

A boat carrying 11 people left Morocco on November 26. Of the 11 people, only two arrived in Almeria, while nine people remained missing. Our thoughts are with their friends and families who were left without news of their loved ones.

December 2: 3 boats missing between Tunisia and Italy

Alarm Phone was informed about 3 disappeared boats, which left from Tunisia towards Italy. In total, over 160 people were on these boats. Until today, we could not find confirmation on the whereabouts on any of these boats. These disappearances need to stop!!

December 1: One person dies in the Western Mediterranean

A boat carrying 15 people arrived from Algeria to Spain. However, one person lost his life onboard.

Our thoughts and solidarity with the friends and families of the ones who lost their lives, the ones missing, and all the ones who are still on the move – who face imprisonment, forced labour, and forced disappearance.  We will continue to fight against the deadly border regime – and for freedom of movement and equal rights for all!

Tear down the deadly European border regime!
Fight the criminalisation of migration & the illegalisation of free movement!
Freedom of movement and equal rights for all!

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Independent support for people crossing the Mediterranean Sea to the EU | If in distress, call +49 30220119540 or +33 486517161 | media: media@alarmphone.org

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alarm_phone @alarmphone @alarm_phone ·
3 Jan

🆘 dans l’Atlantique! ~55 personnes sont en détresse sur la route entre #Tantan et #Lanzarote. Elles sont parties le 2/01 et les autorités sont informées, nous exigeons un sauvetage immédiat !

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alarm_phone @alarmphone @alarm_phone ·
3 Jan

🆘 in the Atlantic! ~55 people are in distress between #Tantan and #Lanzarote. They left on the 2/01 and authorities are informed. We demand immediate rescue!

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alarm_phone @alarmphone @alarm_phone ·
2 Jan

🆘️ ~31 people stranded on #Kastellorizo, #Greece!

The people say there are many children with them, and say some of them have a bad fever. They are asking for urgent assistance! We alerted @Hcoastguard and urge them to act quickly and help these people.

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