Ferries not Frontex

The Mediterranean Sea is one of the deadliest border areas of the entire world. Literally tomorrow this mass dying at the southern borders of EU could become history! It’s a mere political decision to entitle everybody to access commercial ferries and to suspend the cruel EU-visa regime. Nobody would be forced to take a rubber boat anymore and to risk their lives to reach Europe.

However, death at sea is part of an inhuman deterrent policy of the EU. Frontex, the European border agency, with their planes and drones collaborate on a daily level with the so-called Libyan coastguards to organize push- and pullbacks. Frontex is – not only in the central Mediterranean – responsible for continuous stately border crimes. Frontex is also increasingly involved in charter-deportations. This agency has to be abolished. Thus our slogan is Ferries not Frontex!

Who we are and what we do

Alarm Phone is a self-organised 24/7 hotline to support people on the move at sea. We are a transnational network with about 300 members and in the last 10 years we have accompanied about 10.000 boats all over the Mediterranean, in the Atlantic and in the channel. In the Central Med Alarm Phone took on an increasingly central role in coordinating rescues, especially from 2019 onward. Over time, a real chain of solidarity was formed, between us on the phone, those rescuing at sea, and the civil reconnaissance airplanes circling above the Mediterranean in search of distressed boats. Hundreds of boats have been rescued in the last years through this civil fleet cooperation, often in a “race” with state authorities, who try to intercept boats before reaching Europe and pull them back to Libya or Tunisia. Together with the actors of the civil fleet we try to ensure that the boats in distress are not merely rescued at sea but are brought to a safe harbor in Europe.

Death at Sea continues, while a solution would be so easy…

The slogan “Ferries not Frontex” emerged the first time in the days following the 18th of April 2015. More than 800 men, women and children drowned that day in the Central Mediterranean Sea. One week earlier, about 400 people had lost their lives in a similar ‘tragedy’. Tragedies? No! The mass dying was and is a direct and foreseeable consequence of the EU border regime. Killing people on the move continues until today. And Frontex is one of the main symbols of this policy.

While non-assistance as well as push- and pullbacks are a permanent practice against refugees and migrants at sea, tourists or any person with the accepted documents can easily travel often at the same routes without any problems on cheap prices. For example: A ferry-ticket from Ayvalik (Turkey) to Mytiline (Lesvos/Greece) costs about 40 Euros, a ticket from Tanger (Morocco) to Tarifa (Spain) also about 40 Euros, and from Tunis (Tunisia) to Palermo (Italy) only about 30 Euros. Again: nobody would go on boats, which are not seaworthy, nobody would pay smugglers, if they can buy a ticket and enter an ordinary ferry. Its a racist visa system, which forces people on the move to do so.

Towards an open Mediterranean space!

We know that if there would be the political will, the sea would no longer be a deadly barrier but a bridge, connecting both sides of the Mediterranean Sea. It seems far away, if we look at recent political developments with increasing racism and extreme right wing and authoritarian governments. As Alarm Phone we will follow the tenacity of people on the move as a transnational nodal point of a network that undermines and overcomes a racist and exploitative system of global segregation. We will continue with our solidarity on the routes and build and extend infrastructures for freedom of movement.

No border lasts forever. Solidarity will win.