Episode 80: Under attack from the Libyan ‘Coastguards’
Release Date: 10/10/2025
Episode 93: Biking Against Borders
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode we speak with Seb, a 26-year-old bus driver cycling from Amsterdam to Japan, raising money for No Name Kitchen and MiGrate, and raising awareness of brutalities of the global border regime. ---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast--- ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: YouTube: [email protected] ---Show notes--- For more from Seb, see his website here: And follow him on Instagram: For more on No Name Kitchen, see: And check out episodes 87, 63, 59, 58, 51, 41, and 6 of The Civil Fleet Podcast For more on MiGreat, check out ...
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Episode 92: Humanity blocked
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, Barbara from SOS Humanity tells us about the rescue organisation's new ship, the Humanity 2, how its crew saved over 70 lives on its first mission in the Mediterranean, and how the Italian authorities then seized it. ---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast--- ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: YouTube: [email protected] ---Show notes--- For more on SOS Humanity, check out their website, here: You can donate to them here: Follow SOS Humanity Bluesky: And Instagram: Check out episode 55 of The Civil Fleet Podcast for more...
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Episode 91: Titanic profits from Britain's performative cruelty
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode we speak with Toni from Corporate Watch about Titan Airways, a charter airline company making millions from Britain's deportation regime. She tells us how the firm is generating wealth by tearing families apart, making a killing from every juncture in the cycle of war, and using sport to wash its image. ---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast--- ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: YouTube: [email protected] ---Show notes--- Check out Corporate Watch here: Follow Corporate Watch on BlueSky: And on Instagram: Read...
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Episode 90: Saving lives under fire
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode we speak with Sea-Watch spokesperson Julia Winkler about the so-called Libyan Coastguard's shooting of the Sea-Watch 5 rescue ship in May. She tells us how, following the horrific attack, the Italian authorities absurdly put the ship's captain under investigation. Julia also tells us how the rescuers hope to put legal pressure on the German government to protect Sea-Watch's activists from the Libyan gunmen in the future. ---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast--- ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: YouTube: ...
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Episode 89: Intercepted by the Israeli Navy
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Esmé, an activist and chef with the Global Sumud Flotilla. She tells us about the activist group's humanitarian mission to Gaza, and what she saw during the Israeli navy's raid on the flotilla in international waters off Greece. She also speaks on the kidnapping of her fellow activists and the beatings they were subjected on an Israeli ship. ---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast--- ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: YouTube: ...
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Episode 88: Fighting and beating Frontex in Court
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode we speak with Iftach Cohen, co-founder of Front-LEX, a nonprofit legal organisation challenging EU border violence in court. Iftach is going to tell us about the Alaa Hamoudi case, a Syrian man who was pushed back from Greece to Turkey by the Greek Coastguards in 2020, right under the eyes of the European Border and Coastguard agency, Frontex. He tell us how Front-LEX won this case for Hamoudi at the EU's top court in January, and explains why this landmark legal victory should "benefit all future victims of Frontex’s activities, and bring to...
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Episode 87: Border violence in Bulgaria
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode we speak with Ame, Alegro, Mirka and Ruben about No Name Kitchen's solidarity activism with people on the move in Bulgaria. They tell us about the abuses people on the move face inside the country, the terrible conditions of its migrant detention centres, and how the border guards allowed three Egyptian boys to freeze to death in December 2024. ---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast--- ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected] ---Show notes--- For more on No Name...
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Episode 86: What is the Libyan Coastguard?
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Frey Lindsay, a journalist with the transparency and civil liberties organisation Statewatch. He tells us how the so-called Libyan Coastguard is far from a unified organisation but is, in fact, an amalgamation of groups with different structures and vying allegiances. Frey also tells us about a leaked EU document, obtained by Statewatch recently, that proposes the bloc outsource its SAR operations in the Mediterranean to non-European countries and have them take the rescued to non-EU ports. ---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast---...
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Episode 85: Greece's criminalisation of Sudanese refugees
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Mustafa, Bairbre and Louise about the treatment of Sudanese refugees in Greece. Mustafa tells us about the revolution and ongoing proxy war in Sudan. He'll also tell us why he had to flee the country, and the Kafkaesque situation he found himself in after seeking asylum in Greece. Louise and Bairbre tell us more about the situation for people on the move in Greece, how refugees (including children) are being criminalised and sentenced to decades (and sometimes hundreds of years!) in prison for allegedly captaining a boat across the sea...
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Episode 84: Doctors Without Borders returns to the Mediterranean
The Civil Fleet Podcast
In this episode, we speak with Juan Matias Gil, a search-and-rescue representative for Doctors Without Borders (MSF). He tells us how the Italian government made it impossible for the medical charity to use its Geo Barents rescue ship, and about the Oyvon — MSF's new, smaller, faster rescue vessel. He also tells us about the first rescue mission aboard the Oyvon. ---Support--- ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected] ---Show notes--- For more on MSF,...
info_outlineIn 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.
---Get in touch---
Twitter: @FleetCivil
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Bluesky: @thecivilfleet.bsky.social
Instagram: thecivilfleet
--- Show notes ---
For more on SOS Mediterranee, see their website here: sosmediterranee.org
Follow SOS Mediterranee on social media:
BlueSky: @sosmediterranee.org
Insta: SOS MEDITERRANEE
Twitter: @SOSMedIntl
You can watch a clip of Libyan Coastguards firing on Ocean Viking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BRP_MIIGeU
Also, listen to episode 75 of The Civil Fleet Podcast for more on SOS Mediterranee.
For more on Sea-Eye, check out episode 10; Sea-Watch, see episodes 70, 65, 43, 22, 7 and 1, and SOS Humanity, listen to episodes 55 and 31 of The Civil Fleet Podcast.
For more on Italy's distant ports policy, see episodes 71 with ResQShip, and 69, with SeaPunks.
For more on the Libyan Coastguards, see here: https://thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/tag/Libyan-Coastguard/
Read about the EU dismissing the civil fleet's calls to stop funding Libyan Coastguard after the shooting, here: https://euobserver.com/migration/ar9ad7ff4f (Unfortunately, it's behind a paywall...)
For more on the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair, see here: https://bookfair.org.uk