The Civil Fleet Podcast

Saving lives at sea is not a crime But for the past few years, European states have treated those brave enough to save refugees from drowning in the Mediterranean as if they were breaking the law. Welcome to The Civil Fleet, a podcast by civilfleet.com that focuses on the NGO refugee rescuers in the central Mediterranean and beyond.

Episode 64: Pingpong pushbacks at the Poland-Belarus border 11/15/2024

Episode 64: Pingpong pushbacks at the Poland-Belarus border In this episode we speak with Ola, an activist from the Grupa Granica coalition in Poland about the situation for refugees, migrants and people-on-the-move at the country's border with Belarus. She tells us how border guards on both sides are mistreating people-on-the-move there, about the ping-pong pushbacks across the border, and how the country's Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, plans to "temporarily" ban the human right to claim asylum. Ola also tells us about Grupa Granica's work supporting people-on-the-move with food, clothes and first aid, and how the authorities have treated the activists. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- For more on Grupa Granica, see their Facebook page here: See their Instagram account here: For more on the Belarus border, see episode 33 with Dalia, an activist from the Lithuanian human rights and medical aid organisation, Sienos Grupe. Ola mention Alarm Phone. For more them, visit: , and find them on Twitter on And check out The Civil Fleet's episodes 48, 5 and 3. Read this France 24 news article on African people fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine being mistreated by the Polish border guards: Read this FT article about the Afghans stuck at the Poland-Belarus border in 2021, here: And this Amnesty International article here: For more on the Ethiopian people who died at the Poland-Belarus border last year, see here: Read this Al Jazeera news report on the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk plans to temporarily suspend the human right to claim asylum here: Read about Finland's government also blocking the human right to claim asylum here: And this Amnesty International response to it: Ben mentions people in Europe being dubbed smugglers for giving food, water, first aid, etc to people-on-the-move. More examples of that can be found in episodes: 59, 58, 51, 50, 47, 46, 41, 37, 35, 28, 24, 20, 16, 13, 7, 4 and 2 Ola uses the phrase "Dublinned" in the episode. This is a reference to the EU's Dublin Agreement — which is essentially supposed to keep asylum seekers away from northern Europe. Check out this explainer video by The Guardian newspaper: /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/33947717

Episode 63: ‘You feel like the most wanted criminal in the world’ 10/04/2024

Epsode 62: The UK's mistreatment of Albanian asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking 09/20/2024

Episode 61: Labour, immigration raids, and far-right riots 08/10/2024

Episode 60: Pylos Shipwreck – The Greek coastguards watched them drown 07/26/2024

Episode 59: Solidarity in Bosnia (Part 2) 06/13/2024

Episode 58: Solidarity in Bosnia (Part 1) 06/08/2024

Episode 57: People power vs the UK's Rwanda scheme 05/07/2024

Episode 57: People power vs the UK's Rwanda scheme In this episode we speak with Agustina Oliveri, campaigns manager at the UK-based human rights organisation, Free from Torture. Agustina talks to us about Freedom from Tortures' brilliant campaigns against the British government's plans to exile asylum-seekers to Rwanda by targeting the airlines that are willing to do the government's dirty work. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- For more on Freedom from Torture, see: Check them out on Twitter, here: Or On Instagram, here: Join Freedom from Torture's campaign calling on Jet2 and AirTanker to stand on the right side of history: Check out this video of Agustina on the phone with Jet2 about the Rwanda scheme: Check out this video of Freedom from Torture presenting Privilege Style with the Worst Airline of the Year Award in 2022: Watch Freedom from Torture's video of Joan, a Holocaust survivor, confronting Suella Braverman on her hateful language here: Here's a photo of Freedom from Torture crashing the Real Madrid vs Barcelona FC match in 2022 with a message about the Rwanda Scheme. Read The Civil Fleet's exclusive story on the 40 people who died in Home Office asylum-seeker accommodation in 2023: Read The Civil Fleet's stories on the UK's Rwanda scheme: Read the UN statement condemning the UK's Rwanda scheme: For more on Samos Volunteers, see here: For more on the Bibby Stockholm, check out Episode 44 with Reclaim the Sea For more on the UK holding asylum-seekers on former military bases, check out Episode 32 with journalist Bethany Rielly Check out Episode 42, with journalist Nicola Kelly, on asylum seekers being abused and intimidated by staff at Home Office hotels. Ben mentioned the Australian policy of exiling asylum seekers to an island nation, but couldn't remember which. It was Nauru. Read this Amnesty International investigation exposing the abuse of refugees there: Read about the direct action in the courts and in the streets which stopped the first deportation flight to Rwanda: Read this 2023 Human Rights Watch report on the UK Supreme Court finding the UK-Rwanda scheme unlawful: Here's a video of British cops rounding up people set to be deported to Rwanda: Here's the Home Office's video of cops rounding up people set to be exiled to Rwanda: Read this story in The National on the government of Belize denying it is negotiating with the UK over its inhumane deportation policy: Here's a video of people preventing a deportation raid in Peckham, southeast London on May 2, 2024: /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/31171172

Episode 56: Free Homayoun 04/13/2024

Episode 55: The Libyan Coastguards shot at us 03/29/2024

Episode 55: The Libyan Coastguards shot at us In this episode, we speak with Camilla from the refugee rescue organisation SOS Humanity. She tells us about the time the so-called Libyan Coastguard shot at them, disrupting a rescue operation in the central Mediterranean, and causing the death of at least one person in early March 2024. She also tells us how, after that ordeal, the Italian authorities then ordered the Humanity 1 rescue ship to sail for a port, thousands of miles away. And how, when they finally reached land, the authorities tried to detain the ship because they apparently disobeyed the Libyan Coastguards. --Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- For more on SOS Humanity, check out their website, here: You can donate to them here: Follow SOS Humanity on Twitter: You can watch video footage of the Libyan Coastguard's interference of the Humanity 1 rescue, here: Check out episode 31 of The Civil Fleet Podcast for more on the Humanity 1 rescue ship Also, read more about SOS Humanity on The Civil Fleet news blog, here: Ben mentions Mediterranea: Saving Humans and their rescue ship, the Mare Jonio. For more on them, check out episodes 18 and 47 of The Civil Fleet Podcast Ben mentions a trip to Trapani and the Iuventa rescuers. Check out the previous episode of The Civil Fleet Podcast for more on that, and check out episodes 2, 24 and 36 Camilla mentions fellow refugee rescue organisation SOS Mediterranee. For more on them, see here: Fore more on the Libyan Coastguards, see here: And read this exclusive story on the EU continuing its support of the Libyan Coastguard despite its fears of human rights abuses: And this 2020 investigation on how the EU’s supposed training of the Libyan coastguard has only made things worse: Camilla mentions Alarm Phone. Want to know more about them? Check out episodes 48, 5 and 3. Read about Italy's top court declaring Libya not to be a safe port: Read about the Libyan Coastguards harassing MSF's rescue ship Geo Barents here: And watch this video of another incident: Ben mentions the Pirate History Podcast. Check that out here: You can read SOS Humanity, Sea-Watch and Sea-Eye's joint statement on the detention of their ships in March 2024, here: /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/30593343

Episode 54: Solidarity And Resistance 03/19/2024

Episode 54: Solidarity And Resistance Activists aboard the Iuventa rescue ship saved the lives of over 14,000 people in the central Mediterranean between 2016 and 2017. Based on dodgy allegations from a security guard with links to the far right, the Italian secret services began spying on the Iuventa crew in September 2016. The Italian authorities seized the Iuventa in August 2017, and initially warned 10 members of the crew that they were under investigation for human smuggling. But in March 2021, only four of them were charged with “aiding and abetting illegal immigration to Italy.” The four are Kathrin Schmidt, Dariush Beigui, Sascha Girke and Uli Tröder. The preliminary hearing began in May 2022, and has been marred by the prosecution’s many procedural errors and a lack of proper translation for the German defendants. At the end of February 2024, Ben Cowles went to Trapani, on the Italian island of Sicily, to cover what was hoped to be the end of the pretrial. In this episode we interview Dariush and Sascha, two of the Iuventa four, on the day the prosecution gave up. We speak with Elisa De Pieri from Amnesty International, Allison West from ECCHR, former Iuventa crewmate and Die Linke Party candidate Lea Reisner, and Mediterranea: Saving Humans' head of operations Beppe Caccia. We also hear from the Iuventa's lawyers Nicola Canestrini and Francesca Cancellaro about the absurdity of the charges brought against the activists. --Get in touch--- Twitter: Twitter: @FleetCivil Mastodon: Bluesky: Instagram: [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- Check out The Civil Fleet's previous episodes with Iuventa crew members: • Episode 2 with Sascha Girke • Episode 24 with Kathrin Schmidt • Episode 36 with one of their lawyers Francesca Cancellaro Read all about the Iuventa on The Civil Fleet blog, here: Read about Italy's top court declaring Libya not to be a safe port: You can read the full European Ombudsman's findings on Frontex's operations, here: Or you can read a news story about it, here: For more on the ECCHR, listen to episode 15 of The Civil Fleet Podcast with Silvia Rojas-Castro, a legal advisor at the ECCHR, and Elise Flecher, a senior programmes officer at Lawyers for Justice in Libya Allison mentions UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawler. You can read about her intervention in the Iuventa case, here: And on The Civil Fleet, here: You can read the latest ECCHR report on the Iuventa pretrial, here: A few times in the episode, Ben mentions a man, Ibrahima Bah, who was prosecuted in the UK for driving a boat across the Chanel. You can read about him in the Guardian newspaper, here: Read Ben's written interview with Lea Reisner on The Civil Fleet, here: Read about former Frontex boss Fabrice Leggeri joining the far right in France: Read about UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joining a protest organised by a climate conspiracy group last month: For more on Mediterranea: Saving Humans and the Maersk Etienne, check out episodes 18 and 47 of The Civil Fleet Podcast Read about the Maersk Etienne, here: /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/30447888

Episode 53: ‘Sink or you're a smuggler’ 02/25/2024

Episode 52: Frontex, Pirates and Greek lies 01/25/2024

Episode 52: Frontex, Pirates and Greek lies In this episode, we speak with journalist Bashar Deeb from Lighthouse Reports about two investigations he worked on. The first, called 'Frontex and the Pirate Ship', is a disturbing story of how the European Border and Coastguard Agency helped a notorious Libyan rebel group intercept a refugee boat in the Mediterranean. The second, ‘Drowning in Lies’, exposes how Greece tried to cover up its role in the Pylos shipwreck by tampering with witness testimony. --Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Instagram: [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- Check out Lighthouse Reports here: And follow them on Twitter: Read Frontex and the Pirate Ship here: Read Drowning in Lies here: For more on Frontex, see episodes 50 and 23 of The Civil Fleet Podcast Read The Civil Fleet's coverage of Frontex, here: Check out this 2021 report by Sea-Watch called ‘Crimes of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex in the Central Mediterranean Sea’ here: For more on the Tariq Ben Zeyad unit, read this Amnesty International report: For more on the campaign group Refugees in Libya, check out episode 23 of The Civil Fleet Podcast In early 2020, The Civil Fleet exposed how the EU planned to continue to support the Libyan Coastguard despite the bloc's concerns the government was violating the human rights of migrants and profiting from their detention: Read this interview with a Somali refugee held in a bogus ‘refugee camp’ in Libya: For more on Libya, check out episode 15 of The Civil Fleet Podcast Check out episode 33 of The Civil Fleet Podcast for more on the situation at the Lithuania-Belarus border For more on Malta's floating prisons, read this: The UK is also holding people on the move on a floating prison, called the Bibby Stockholm. For more on that, see episodes 44 and 40 of The Civil Fleet Podcast. It was the Maersk Etienne that rescued 27 people in 2020, which Malta refused to allow to come ashore. Listen to episode 18 and/or, read about it here: For more on Alarm Phone, listen to episodes 48, 5, and 3 of The Civil Fleet Podcast. Read about them here, too: Read about the Crotone shipwreck here: Read about the Pylos shipwreck, here: Ben was trying to paraphrase this quote by Robert Fisk at the end of the episode: Journalists rarely "move mountains or bring down regimes; instead, we just chip, chip, chip away at the rock face, hoping that someone notices — so that no one can say ‘we didn’t know’." /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/29642973

Episode 51: Europe's Bloody Borders 01/09/2024

Episode 51: Europe's Bloody Borders In this episode, we speak with Sergio from No Name Kitchen. He tells how the group supports people on the move along the Balkan route, and the types of violence they experience along the European Union's edges. Sergio also talks to us about No Name Kitchen's Bloody Borders report, and of the horrific levels of abuse suffered at European borders. --Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Instagram: [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- For more No Name Kitchen, visit: Follow them on Twitter here: Read NNK's Bloody Borders Report here: If you'd like to volunteer with NNK, see here: Check out Sergio's awesome NNK jumper here: Check out episodes 6 (Irina) and 41 (with Barbara) of The Civil Fleet Podcast for more on NNK. Episode 6 is here and episode 41 is here: Want to know where Ceuta is? See this Google Map: Never heard of Šid? Here it is in Serbia: According to the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM), at least 974 people died in the central Mediterranean in 2023, and at least 1,372 are missing. 17,025 people were intercepted at sea and returned to Libya. Watch the Emergency NGO video Ben mentions in the episode here: Sergio mentions the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN). For more on them, check out episode 8 of The Civil Fleet Podcast here: . And see their website here: Sergio mentions Lighthouse Reports. For more on them, see here: And, check out episode 34 of The Civil Fleet Podcast: tinyurl.com/3bez9u9c We very briefly mention the situation for people on the move at the Belarus border. For more on that, check out episode 33 of The Civil Fleet Podcast: Ben makes yet another reference to the works of Noam Chomsky in this episode when he talks about ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy victims.’ For more on that, read about it here: , or listen to it here: . /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/29402508

Episode 50: Abolish Frontex 11/16/2023

Episode 49: Safe Passage for Refugees 10/27/2023

Episode 49: Safe Passage for Refugees In 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: Mastodon: Instagram: [email protected] civilfleet.com Support: ---Show Notes--- For more on the PCS union, see: For more on PCS and Care4Calais' Safe Passage Policy, read about it here: If you'd like to email your MP about PCS's safe passage policy, see here: 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: See here for more on the UK Border Force training to push refugees back across the Channel already, here: 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: 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: 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: 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: /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/28440842

Episode 48: Europe's Tunisian border 10/17/2023

Episode 47: ‘Remove the rescue equipment or we will arrest you’ 09/30/2023

Episode 47: ‘Remove the rescue equipment or we will arrest you’ In this episode, we speak with Serena from Mediterranea: Saving Humans, an Italian refugee rescue organisation. Serena tells us how the Italian authorities have prevented the organisation's ship, the Mare Jonio, from going back to sea to save lives for over a year. She also tells how the authorities recently ordered the Mare Jonio to remove all of its rescue equipment or face arrest. --Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: Instagram: [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- Visit Mediterranea: Saving Human's website here: Follow Mediterranea: Saving Humans on Twitter: For more on Mediterranea: Saving Humans, and the ongoing pretrial case against it, check out Episode 18 with Iason Apostolopoulos Read The Civil Fleet's stories about Mediterranea: Saving Humans, here: Ben and Serena mention Matteo Salvini. He is Italy's transport minister, former interior minister, and the leader of one of the country's far-right parties. Mare Nostrum was an Italian-state-run refugee rescue mission in the central Mediterranean. Read this Guardian newspaper report from 2014 on its end: Article 98 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea requires all ships to "render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost to proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress..." Read that here: Ben mentions UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman a few times in this episode. Earlier this week, she outlined her ambition to overhaul international refugee conventions during a speech in the United States. Read about that here in the Morning Star newspaper: And read in the Guardian newspaper about how even members of her own right-wing party think she has gone too far: Ben and Serena breifly touch on the EU's deals with Tunisia. Read this article by Human Rights Watch calling on the EU Commission to stop ignoring Tunisia's abuses of migrants: Maersk Etienne, check out episode 18. And/or, read about it here: For more on the Iuventa, check out Episodes 2, 24 and 36. For more on Lampedusa, see Episode 46 with Maldusa's Jasmine /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/28185080

Episode 46: Organised chaos in Lampedusa 09/22/2023

Episode 45: Saving lives in the dead of night 08/26/2023

Episode 44: Reclaim the Sea 08/13/2023

Episode 43: Doro - refugee, hero, champion, survivor 07/29/2023

Episode 42: Exposing the Home Office's treatment of asylum seekers 07/16/2023

Episode 41: Solidarity along the Balkan route 06/30/2023

Episode 40: Profiting from Europe's deportation regime 06/16/2023

Episode 39: A hostile environment for refugees 05/30/2023

Episode 39: A hostile environment for refugees In today's episode we speak with filmmaker Sonita Gale, about her award-winning documentary film Hostile. Sonita tells us how Britain's "hostile environment" stretches much further back than 2012, when then home secretary Theresa May coined the term, and is rooted in the British Empire. We hear how successive governments — both Labour and Conservative — have created an inhumane system for migrants and refugees in the UK and how this has affected the people in her film. She also tells us how these dehumanising policies lead to the Windrush Scandal, and how they link with the NHS crisis, workers' rights, poverty, and the government's anti-protest laws. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: @[email protected] [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- For more on Sonita Gale's documentary, see here: If you're in the UK, you can watch the film online here: If you're outside the UK, then check here for more information on how to watch it: See the trailer for Hostile here: You can follow Hostile on Twitter here: And follow Hostile on Instagram here: For anyone outside the UK that doesn't know what the Home Office is, it is similar to the Ministry of the Interior in much of Europe, or the Department for Homeland Security in the US. The head of the UK Home Office (called the Home Secretary) is Suella Braverman. Before her, it was Priti Patel. Both are mentioned in the podcast. Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron were all former Conservative Prime Ministers. Members of the Conservative party are often referred to as Tories, and the party as The Tory Party. Theresa May was the Home Secretary in 2012. She coined the term Hostile Environment in 2012. You can read more about that, and the 10-year anniversary of it, here: Ben and Sonita mention Enoch Powell and his Rivers of Blood speech. You can read more about him and his infamous speech here: Here's a good explanation of the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill and why it is so dangerous by the human rights organisation Liberty: For more on the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) policy, see the NRPF Network, here: Here is a good explanation of the Windrush Scandal by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants: The Noam Chomsky quote at the end of the film is this: "As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.” The Chomsky quote that Ben (mis)quotes (again!) is this: “If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things.” /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/26991522

Episode 38: ‘The Illegal Migration Bill is truly horrific’ 04/21/2023

Episode 38: ‘The Illegal Migration Bill is truly horrific’ In today's episode, we speak with migrant rights campaigner and policy expert Zoe Gardener about the UK's Illegal Migration Bill. Zoe tells us how the government plans to reject the asylum applications for anyone who enters the country irregularly, including victims of trafficking and slavery, to house them in old military bases, and to deport them to a third country. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- You can follow Zoe on Twitter here: Zoe's articles on Open Democracy can be found here: Watch Zoe explain to British politicians how the government's Nationality and Borders Bill will not only cause suffering and injustice, but will not work in its aim to end irregular migrant journeys to the UK, here: You can find Zoe's YouTube channel here: What to know more about the Overton Window? Here's a good (but very US-focused) explanation of it by Vox: For more of The Civil Fleet Podcast's UK-focused interviews, check out episodes 32 with journalist Bethany Rielly, 25 with Syrian refugee Hasan, 21 with Doctors Without Borders UK advocacy officer Sophie McCann, 17 with Care4Calais founder Clare Moseley, and 11 with Channel Rescue activist Kim. This report in the Independent newspaper reveals how asylum seekers were forced onto the deportation flight to Rwanda and restrained: Read this Guardian report on Privilege Style airline pulling out of the UK government's scheme to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda: Check out this story in Huck Magazine on how a campaign led by ex-torture survivors and refugee organisations left the Tories with no planes to carry out their Rwanda deportations: For more on the UK government's deportation deals with private airlines, see this excellent expose On the topic of asylum seeker hotels, The Civil Fleet exposed how deaths in the Home Office's asylum-seeker accommodation more than doubled in 2022: The Illegal Migration Bill was launched in March 2023. You can follow its process through Parliament and the House of Lords (the UK's unelected upper chamber of government) here: For more on the UK's Hostile Environment policies, see this report by left-wing think tank IPPR: Zoe briefly mentions Britain's Windrush scandal in this episode. For more on that, see this excellent explaination by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, here: She also mentions the UK's rivers, lakes and beaches being covered in raw sewage. Read Surfers Against Sewage's summation of the scandal, here: UK will give France nearly half a billion pounds in major push to solve small boats crisis: The full quote by the late David Graber that Ben paraphrases at the end of the episode is this: “The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.” Finally, here's a short video report I worked o the Illegal Migration Bill for the Morning Star newspaper: /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/26610477

Episode 37: Free The El Hiblu 3 - Teenagers accused of terrorism for translating 03/23/2023

Episode 37: Free The El Hiblu 3 - Teenagers accused of terrorism for translating In today's episode we speak with Jelka and Amara. Amara was one of 108 people who were rescued by an oil tanker, called the El Hiblu 1, in March 2019 after escaping Libya. The European authorities ordered the El Hiblu 1's crew to wait for the Libyan coastguards to come and take the rescued back to the war-torn country. But, the rescued convinced the crew to sail north instead. Amara, along with fellow teenagers Abdalla and Kadar, acted as translators between the refugees and the crew. The Maltese special forces eventually raided the ship, in full tactical gear, when it got close to the island nation. Amara, Abdalla and Kadar were arrested and accused of terrorism, piracy and worse for what is essentially an extraordinary act of humanitarianism. They have been stuck in a bureaucratic legal nightmare for four years while the Maltese prosecutors try to figure out what crime to charge them with. We're going to hear from Amara briefly about halfway through today's episode. With the pretrial in Malta still ongoing, he is unable to tell us too much about what happened. And so, we'll mainly be speaking with Jalka from the Free the El Hiblu 3 campaign. She's going to tell us more about what happened to Amara, Abdalla and Kader and the campaign to free them. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: @[email protected] [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- For more on the El Hiblu 3 and the Free the El Hiblu 3 campaign, see here: Follow Free the El Hiblu 3 on Twitter on: , and on Instagram here: If you'd like to read the El Hiblu 3 e-book, then go here: You can read more about Amara's story here: Read Kader's here: And Abdalla's here: Ben mentions an exclusive story he worked on about the rising numbers of deaths at UK Home Office asylum-seeker accommodation. You can read that here: Ben and Jelka mention EUNAVFOR MED, which stands for European Union Naval Force Mediterranean. You can read more about that here: , here: , and here: Ben and Jelka briefly mention the campaign group Refugees In Libya and one of its organisers David Yambio. He appears on episode 29 of The Civil Fleet podcast. Here's a link to the Times of Malta documentary on the El Hiblu 3 with English subtitles: Ben briefly mentions Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity. You can find more about them here: /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/26315868

Episode 36: Defending the Iuventa 4 refugee rescuers 03/11/2023

Episode 36: Defending the Iuventa 4 refugee rescuers In today's episode we speak with Francesca Cancellaro, one of the human rights lawyers representing the Iuventa 4 — four activists on pretrial in Italy after saving over 14,000 lives in the Mediterranean. Francesca updates us on the pretrial, walks us through some of the many irregularities prolonging it, and explains why the case is so important for the future of activist-led rescue missions. She also tells us why the Iuventa crew are taking the Trapani Prosecutor’s Office to court over the abandonment and destruction of their ship. ---Get in touch--- Twitter: Mastodon: @[email protected] [email protected] Support: ---Show Notes--- Find more on the Iuventa here: Follow them on Twitter: Wanna hear more from the Iuventa 4? Check out Episode 2 with Sascha and Episode 24 with Kathrin of The Civil Fleet podcast. Also, check out this 2020 lockdown video interview I did with Darius and Hendrik about the Iuventa. Ten former members of the crew were under investigation then. (Ignore my cringy introduction.) Watch it here: Read more about the Iuventa on The Civil Fleet here: Ben and Francesca mention Matteo Salvini several times throughout this episode. He is a far-right Italian politician, and at the time the Iuventa was operating, he was the country's Interior Minister. For more on the No Translation No Justice campaign, see here: Francesca mentions the ECCHR (European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights) at one point in the podcast. For more about them, visit: ecchr.eu/en and/or listen to Episode 15 of The Civil Fleet podcast. For more on the February 26 2023 shipwreck off the coast of Italy, see here: Following the shipwreck, Sascha gave this powerful speech in court: Francesca also mentions Mary Lawlor, the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. You can read her recent statement about the criminalisation of the Iuventa 4 here: Read how the ship has been left to rot in port and why the Iuventa crew are taking the Trapani Prosecutor’s Office to court over it here: For more on Carola Rackete — captain of the Sea Watch 3 in 2019 who, after the crew had saved 40 lives in the Mediterranean Sea, entered the port of Lampedusa without permission — read this: /episode/index/show/civilfleet/id/26196420

Episode 35: Sentenced to 142-years for doing ‘what any human would do’ 02/27/2023

The Civil Fleet Podcast

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