Episode 75: Frontex ‘likely’ breached refugees' right to life
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Lucille, operation communications manager for SOS Mediterranee. She tells us how the Ocean Viking's crew found 25 people adrift in the Mediterranean Sea by chance in March 2024. The survivors told Lucille that they had left Libya five or six days ago with around 60 people. Most of them didn't survive. A serious incident report published quietly by Frontex in May this year corroborates the survivors' accounts, that their boat was spotted by planes and commercial ships, but no rescue was launched. The Frontex report also...
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Episode 74: Is solidarity a crime?
The Civil Fleet Podcast
We speak with Silvia from the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, or PICUM. She tells us about a report she wrote for PICUM on the criminalisation and non-judicial harassment of people-on-the-move and activists working in solidarity with them in Europe last year. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected] --- Show notes --- For more on PICUM, see: You can read the PICUM report talked about in this episode here: Follow PICUM on social...
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Episode 73: Dismantle the Home Office
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, migrants rights campaigner Zoe Gardner tells us why the UK Home Office should be dismantled. In a report she recently wrote for the Green Party, Zoe says the controversial department should be split up into two new ministries. We talk about the Home Office's acts of cruelty to migrants, refugees and people on the move, and how government policy of housing asylum seekers in unfit accommodation has created a billionaire. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected]...
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Episode 72: Mapping Malta's border violence
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with academic Cetta and foreign policy analyst Daniel about the Malta Migration Archive. We discuss the Maltese government's refusal to save refugee lives in its own search-and-rescue zone, how it ignores civilian rescue ships, pressurises commercial ships to not rescue refugees, and how it organises pushbacks with the so-called Libyan coastguards. Cetta and Daniel tell us how the Malta Migration Archive maps all of this, and why it is so important to expose and combat the Maltese government's silence. ---Get in touch--- ...
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Episode 71: Dead children and distant ports
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with medical doctors Hannah and James about their latest missions on the Nadir, a sailing boat operated by ResQship. Hannah tells us about a rescue in May, when the crew found a boat carrying over 60 people, including two dead children. The people they rescued had been at sea for four days with no water. James tells us about the Nadir's last rescue in June. After bringing 112 people to safety in Lampedusa, the Italian authorities decided to block the ship from leaving port. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: ...
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Episode 70: They were left stranded on a gas rig
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, Sea-Watch's search-and-rescue coordinator Hendrik tells us about the rescue of 32 people stranded on a gas rig in central Mediterranean in March. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected] --- Show notes --- For more on Sea-Watch, visit: Follow Sea-Watch on BlueSky: Instagram: seawatchcrew Also, check out episodes 65, 43, 22, 7 and 1 of The Civil Fleet Podcast for more on Sea-Watch. For more on the Miskar Platform rescue, see here: https:// You can...
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Episode 69: ‘You don't have children anymore‘
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Arturo, captain of the refugee rescue ship Seapunk I. He's going to tell us all about the Seapunks activist group and its connection with punk rock music. He also tells us about a dramatic rescue mission in the Mediterranean Sea in January, in which several people died. We also discuss how the Italian authorities force NGO ships to take the refugees to distant ports, and how this deliberately results in more refugee deaths. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: ...
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Episode 68: EU plans to criminalise solidarity with refugees
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Yasha Maccanico a researcher and journalist at StateWatch, a UK-based charity focused on civil liberties, human rights and democracy in Europe. We talk about a proposed EU law that could make it easier for states to criminalise acts of solidarity with people on the move. Yasha also talks to us about abuses of state power in Europe under the guise of lowering immigration, the externalisation of the EU's borders in Africa, and much more. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: ...
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Episode 67: Syria, Gaza, and European hostility to refugees
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Michaël Neuman from Doctors' Without Borders (MSF). He tells us about the charity's work in Syria, and how the fall of Bashar Assad's regime could affect this. We also discuss MSF's work in Gaza, Israel's ongoing genocide against the Palestinians and the fact that, unlike most conflicts, the people there have no escape. Michaël also tells us why MSF decided it needed to help asylum seekers in the UK, and why European governments have been far too quick to pause asylum claims for Syrians. ---Get in touch--- Twitter:...
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Episode 66: We found a child floating alone in the dark
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Katja and Matthias, co-founders of the refugee rescue group CompassCollective. They tell us how they operate their rescue ship, the Trotamar III, to document human rights violations and save lives in the central Mediterranean. They also tell us about the recent rescue of an 11-year-old-girl they found by chance floating alone at sea for 2 or 3 days. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected] Support:...
info_outlineIn this episode, we speak with Paul O'Connor the senior national officer at the Public and Commerical Services (PCS) union - one of the largest unions in the UK, representing workers across all government departments and in the private sector.
Paul tells us about the safe passage for refugees policy the union's members wrote with Care4Calais, and why it is a genuinely humanitarian way to stop the small boat crossings of the Channel.
We also touch on working class solidarity, anti-fascism and, the Bibby Stockholm, the hostile environment, and how a string of governments have created the asylum-seeker backlog.
--Get in touch---
Twitter: @FleetCivil
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Instagram: thecivilfleet
civilfleet.com
Support:
ko-fi.com/civilfleet
---Show Notes---
For more on the PCS union, see: pcs.org.uk
For more on PCS and Care4Calais' Safe Passage Policy, read about it here: https://care4calais.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Safe-Passage-Policy-Paper.pdf
If you'd like to email your MP about PCS's safe passage policy, see here: action.pcs.org.uk/page/134188/action/1
Ben and Paul speak about the Tories throughout this episode. The Tories is the nickname of the ruling Conservative Party.
For more on The World Transformed, the festival Ben mentions in the episode, see here: theworldtransformed.org
See here for more on the UK Border Force training to push refugees back across the Channel already, here: https://thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/2022/01/14/uk-border-force-may-have-begun-attempts-to-push-refugees-back-across-the-channel-already-evidence-suggests/
For more on Channel Rescue and Care4Calais, see episodes 11 and 17 of The Civil Fleet Podcast
Ben and Paul speak about Priti Patel a few times in this episode. She was the UK's Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022. She was replaced by Suella Braverman. The Home Secretary is a similar governmental role to interior minister in many European countries.
For more on the UK's treatment of refugees, the Rwanda Scheme, the Hostile Environment, the Illegal Immigration Act and the Bibby Stockholm see episodes 21, 25, 32, 38, 39, 40, 42 and 44.
Paul mention Detention Action. For more on them, see: detentionaction.org.uk
Ben and Paul speak about the FBU, which is the Fire Brigades Union. For more on the union's solidarity work with refugees, see here: https://www.fbu.org.uk/news/2023/03/05/trade-unions-unite-solidarity-refugees
Paul mentions the Scottish Rolls-Royce workers who refused to work on fighter jets bound for Chile in the 1970s, when the country was ruled by the western-back dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. For more on that, check out the documentary film Nae Pasaran, here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/naepasaran
For more on the vast amounts of money the UK government has spent in France trying to stop people from crossing the Channel, see this Al Jazeera report from March 2023: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/10/uk-to-fund-france-detention-centre-as-leaders-agree-migration-deal