Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s refusal to quit office until mid-January continues to draw condemnation from Left MEPs in the European Parliament. Tone deaf to the overwhelming calls demanding his immediate resignation, it is feared that the longer Muscat remains in office, the more the murder investigation of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia risks being compromised.
Read MoreAs a frontline humanitarian NGO, Mission Lifeline is regularly exposed to victims of appalling human rights violations during our work, but we also witness resulting feats of incredible human resilience. However, every last one of us has a physical, mental and emotional breaking point, particularly following the extreme trauma typically found amongst those who’ve passed through Libya’s abusive detention system.
Read MoreThe political offensive against civil sea rescue continues: Now the civil reconnaissance aircraft Moonbird was blocked from operations as well. The aircraft is operated by Sea-Watch and the Swiss Humanitarian Pilots Initiative (HPI) and is supported by the Protestant Church of Germany (EKD). The Maltese authorities do not allow any kind of search and rescue operations. From now on no search flights in the search area north of the Libyan coast are possible anymore. Since operations started, Moonbird was involved in the rescue of 20 000 people and more than…
Read MoreWith more than 200 people on board, today is day 6 for the LIFELINE stucking at sea, with deteriorating weather conditions and an increasingly fragile health situation of the rescued people. According to media reports, a solution to this deadlock was close as several EU states negotiated with Malta to open the ports and to distribute the people to different EU states. Several countries and communes offered to take people, in Germany after Berlin now Schleswig Holstein offered to welcome people rescued by the LIFELINE crew as well. But the…
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