EUROPEAN states’ crackdown on NGO refugee rescue ships operating in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas escalated today when three German charities were told that new regulations bar their ships from sailing.

The three organisations, Mare Liberum, Mission Lifeline and ResQShip, issued a joint statement torday condemning the German Transport Ministry's amendment of safety regulations relating to yachts and other small vessels engaged in humanitarian work of any sort.  

The new rules, the charities said, were designed to be impossible for smaller humanitarian ships sailing under the German flag to comply with.

Failure to respect the regulations will result in huge fines.

“It is [a matter of] public record that since the beginning of civil sea rescue and observatory missions on July 1 2015 – including hundreds of missions, thousands of saved people and hundreds of active crew members – there has not been a single accident or emergency in which a member of the crew or passenger suffered bodily harm or loss of life,” the charities’ statement said.

“It is [a] cynical [move] towards people hoping for assistance, who are fleeing and are in acute situations of emergency at sea, to obstruct the operation of such relief missions by burdening them with overzealous security requirements.

“These changes show an unnerving similarity to the developments of the Netherlands against civil sea rescue ships flying the Dutch flag.

“There too, the operation of smaller crafts and leisure yachts was impeded, leading to later changes of law, which made it impossible to operate bigger ships.”

Mare Liberum board member Hanno Bruchmann condemned the German state’s attempt to curb their activities just as the charity’s ship was ready to operate again in Greece.

“The simple aim of this new law is to obstruct our operations,” Mr Bruchmann said.

“Apparently, the Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer prefers to see refugees drown, instead of them safely reaching European shores. This change of law has to be repealed immediately.”

Mission Lifeline executive board member Axel Steier said: “Under the radar of the public, the [Christian Social Union]-led ministries secretly try every trick in the book to make us stumble.

“Sea rescue is an obligation. Those who impede it have left humanitarian values behind them. We will not be put off by this. We’ll be off to the sea again.”

Mission Lifeline’s ship the Lifeline has been detained in Malta since May 2019. The charity had been planning to launch a new ship, the Rise Above, in the near future.

“These new regulations are not only unlawful but obviously disproportionate,” said ResQShip member Stefen Seyfert.

"The [Transport Ministry] has reached a new moral low point, as they try to obstruct humanitarian work with erroneous arguments.

“This is done in spite of the fact that these very civil organisations are the ones providing more security at sea and are the ones taking care of the adherence to maritime and international law for the protection of human lives.”