Episode 81: Kidnapped by the IDF – The Global Sumud Flotilla story
Release Date: 10/19/2025
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: ...
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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...
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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. ...
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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...
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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...
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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 ...
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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. ...
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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: 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...
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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: info@civilfleet.com...
info_outlineIn 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 up for their citizens.
---Get in touch---
Twitter: @FleetCivil
Mastodon: @civilfleet@kolektiva.social
Bluesky: @thecivilfleet.bsky.social
Instagram: thecivilfleet
info@civilfleet.com
Join me at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair, see here: https://bookfair.org.uk
--- Show notes ---
For more on the Global Sumud Flotilla, see the group's website here: global-sumudflotilla.com
Follow Lorenzo D'Agostino on:
Twitter: @lorenzodago
Instagram: lo_dago
And on TikTok: lorenzodago
Check out his website here: lorenzodagostino.com
Check out episode 19 of The Civil Fleet Podcast for more from Lorenzo
Want to know what Lorenzo and I were doing in Trappani, Sicily, last January? Then check out episode 54.
For more on the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, see here: https://thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/american-workers-rights-activist-chris-smalls-beaten-by-israeli-soldiers/
Read this CBS report on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly approving the bombings of Family and Alma ship in Tunisia: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/netanyahu-drone-attacks-gaza-aid-boats-tunisia/
For more on Palestine Action, see here: https://thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/2025/07/05/the-civil-fleet-podcast-stands-with-palestine-action/
Ben mentions the Libyan Coastguards firing on the Ocean Viking refugee rescue ship and the Italy navy failing to help. Check out episode 80 for more on that.
You can read a farcical (and now deleted) article on an Israeli government website claiming the Global Sumud Flotilla was organised by Hamas, here: https://web.archive.org/web/20251001154325/https://govextra.gov.il/mda/march-to-gaza/the-hidden-networks-behind-the-global-sumud-flotilla/
Ben mentions The World Transformed Festival. Read about that here: https://theworldtransformed.org/
You can read Lorenzo's article addressed to the Israeli people, here: https://x.com/lorenzodago/status/1973516145350287812
Read about Saleh al-Jafaraw, the latest (as of this recording) journalist killed by the Israeli military, here: https://www.middleeasteye.net/trending/tributes-pour-palestinian-journalist-killed-after-gaza-ceasefire