BoatSpotting in the Mediterranean Sea

Every day, people flee their homes to escape war, persecution, torture, hunger, misery or rape. They flee out of hopelessness and despair. They flee because their lives are threatened. They leave their families, friends and beloved regions of their homeland and set out on their journey.

Their plight is exacerbated by the structural and personal violence that refugees experience on their way. The whole of North Africa, especially the civil war country of Libya, is a stopover for hundreds of thousands of refugees that has turned into a living hell. There are no legal routes through which threatened people can reach safety.

The right to asylum includes the right to free movement. For years, European nation states have trampled on these rights. "Fortress Europe" is defended, with more and more border troops and fences. We consider the EU internal and external borders institutionalized racism. The Mediterranean Sea acts like a fence. There is no getting through except at the risk of one's life.

There are no illegal people and no second-class people. Regardless of origin, every human being has an inviolable dignity and thus the right to life, to physical integrity, to sexual self-determination and to practice one's own religion. For this reason, we do not accept that people are left alone in their distress while fleeing and drowning in the sea because of our economic interests, our ignorance and our intolerance.

We place our work in the global context of criticism of structural injustice, exploitation, oppression and capitalist economic and thought structures. We stand in solidarity with all emancipatory movements worldwide.