Dear friends of Sea-Eye,

the SEA-EYE 4 arrived yesterday in the port of Burriana in Spain.

After our second mission in the Mediterranean Sea this year, where we were able to rescue 49 people in distress, the SEA-EYE 4 had been detained in Italy. The Italian authorities justified the detention by saying that the crew of the SEA-EYE 4 had violated a new law by responding to another distress call after a first rescue, when they had already been assigned a safe port. According to the new Italian law, the crew should have proceeded to the safe port as soon as possible and ignored the other distress call.

This week alone, the AlarmPhone organization reported dozens of refugees in distress in the Mediterranean. Just today, the organization reported that it had lost contact with about 40 people in a sinking boat who had not received help from any coast guard. We cannot accept a policy that causes the death of lives by detaining rescue ships. That is why we are now preparing for our next mission in Burriana.

Yours, Gorden Isler
- Chairman of Sea-Eye e. V.