Episode 82: Monitoring human rights the Channel
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Peter from The Channel Monitoring Project. He tells how the new project plans to monitor people crossing over from France to England, how the group hopes to counter the toxicity around this in Britain, and how anyone can get involved. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: info@civilfleet.com Join me at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair, see here: --- Show notes --- For more on The Channel Monitoring Project, see their website here: ...
info_outline
Episode 81: Kidnapped by the IDF – The Global Sumud Flotilla story
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Lorenzo D'Agostino, a journalist who took part the Global Sumud Flotilla's civilian-led mission to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. He tells us about joining sailing from Barcelona towards Gaza, how its boats came under repeated drone attacks, and how the activists were eventually intercepted and kidnapped by the Israeli Navy. Lorenzo tells us how, once in Israel, his captors treated them all like terrorists and subjected them to torture, before deporting them to Turkey. We also hear how most European governments totally failed to stand...
info_outline
Episode 80: Under attack from the Libyan ‘Coastguards’
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Patrick, a search and rescue worker on SOS Mediteranee's ship the Ocean Viking. Patrick is going to tell us about the Libyan Coastguard's attack on the Ocean Viking in August this year. The tells us how the EU-funded Libyan Coastguards circled the ship and peppered it with bullets at head and chest height. There were 80 rescued people on the ship, including unaccompanied children. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Despite their attack on a European-flagged ship, the EU has said it will continue to fund and work with the Libyan Coastguards. ...
info_outline
Episode 79: Documenting the UNHCR's failures in North Africa
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with human rights campaigner and Refugees in Libya co-founder David Yambio. He gives us an update on Refugees in Libya's Unfair campaign, which demands the UNHCR change the way it treats people in need of its protection. He tells us about the Book of Shame — which he and his fellow Refugees in Libya campaigners co-wrote with members of Refugees in Tunisia and Refugees in Niger. He tells us how the book outlines the UNHCR's failures to protect people-on-the-move, in North Africa. David also tells us how he found out...
info_outline
Episode 78: Solidarity on trial in Poland
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode we speak with Aleksandra from Grupa Granica, a refugee support coalition working at the Poland-Belarus border, and Ola, a member Szpila, an anti-repression feminist collective based in Warsaw. They are going to tell us about the trial of a man called Bartek, who, in October 2024, provided humanitarian assistance to a young Somali man who wanted to apply for asylum in Poland. However, the border guards pushed the Somali man back to Belarus without lodging his asylum application. When Bartek told the guards that he would file a complaint against...
info_outline
Episode 77: Occupy Fortress Europe!
The Civil Fleet Podcast
We speak with Manon and Camille, two activists with F.Lotta - a horizon network organising protests across Europe this weekend and the central Mediterranean, demanding free movement for all and an end to fortress Europe's murderous policies. Camille and Manon tell us how and why F.Lotta was formed, about all the different campaigns taking part in the continent-wide protests, and how they hope the protests will show that a different world is possible. --Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: info@civilfleet.com ...
info_outline
Episode 76: Stop the inhumanity at Europe's borders
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Jeff Crisp, formerly of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and now part of the campaign group United Against Inhumanity (UAI). He tells us how and why UAI was set up, how it is trying to get European governments to treat people-on-the-move humanely, and about the organisation's recently published manifesto: Stop the Inhumanity at Europe's Borders. We also discuss the far-right's anti-asylum-seeker protests in the UK, Italy's failed deportation deal with Albania, and the US's similar deals with countries in Africa and Latin America. ...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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: info@civilfleet.com --- Show notes --- For more on PICUM, see: You can read the PICUM report talked about in this episode here: Follow PICUM on social...
info_outline
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: info@civilfleet.com...
info_outlineWe 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: @FleetCivil
Mastodon: @civilfleet@kolektiva.social
Bluesky: @thecivilfleet.bsky.social
Instagram: thecivilfleet
info@civilfleet.com
--- Show notes ---
For more on PICUM, see: picum.org
You can read the PICUM report talked about in this episode here: https://picum.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Criminalisation-of-migration-and-solidarity-in-the-EU-2024-report.pdf
Follow PICUM on social media:
Bluesky: @picumofficial.bsky.social
Twitter: @picum_ngo
Instagram: picum_ngo
Silvia mentioned former Green Party MEP Majid Majid. For more on him, see here: magicmagid.com
Ben mentions migrants rights campaigner Zoe Gardner. See episodes 73 and 38 of The Civil Fleet Podcast to hear from her.
Read this report from the Irish Times on the anti-migrant protests blighting Ireland recently; https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2025/04/26/anti-immigration-protest-marking-easter-rising-gathers-crowds-in-dublin/
Ben mentions previous episodes of The Civil Fleet Podcast with people-on-the-move who have been criminalised in Greece, Italy and Malta. Here are some of the episodes:
Episode 56 focuses on the Homayoun Sabetara case
Episode 53 features Nadia, a Lebanese refugee whose husband was accused of smuggling
Hanad Abdi Mohammad, a Somalian refugee who was sentenced to 142 years behind bars for supposedly captaining a boat across the Aegean, talks to us in episode 35
Check out episode 29 to hear from South Sudanese human rights campaigner Yambio David Oliver
Listen to episode 37 to hear about the El Hiblu 3
Silvia mentions No Name Kitchen. For more on them, see episodes: 63, 59, 58, 51, 41 and 6
For more on the Iuventa case, listen to episodes 54, 24, and 2
Silvia mention Francesca Cancellaro. Check out episode 36 to hear from here, and the Iuventa case
Read this for more on Italy's detention of the refugee rescue ship Nadir: resqship.org/en/statement-piantedosi
Ben makes reference to the British government banning a non-violent protest group banned by the British government. For more on that, see here: https://thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/2025/07/05/the-civil-fleet-podcast-stands-with-palestine-action/
For more on the Kinsa case, see kinsa-case.eu/the-case-kinsa