Professional captain, who will take us where help is needed.
Our journey, and theirs
Towards the end of 2015 and the first three months of 2016, Lesbos and other Greek islands were the main entry point for over 900,000 refugees who reached Europe at that time.
After the agreement between the European Union and Turkey in March 2016, the refugees who reached the Aegean Islands would be deported to Turkey and, consequently, the entrance point to Europe from there was closed.
Thus, existing routes that are longer and more dangerous in the Central Mediterranean were intensified. This journey is much longer, approximately 300 km to the island of Lampedusa and over 500 km to Sicily, therefore the number of deaths in this critical area is consistently growing.
Almost 30,000 people have lost their lives by drowning while trying to cross the Central Mediterranean from 2014 to today.
From 2015 to 2021
19,098 Deaths/Disappearances in the sea.
Once in the Aegean Sea, the refugees leave the Turkish coast and could see the Greek islands on the horizon, viewing their destination with a false sense of safety.
Now, the routes are much longer and more dangerous. The current route starts on the Libyan coast, failed State submerged in a civil war where human rights are systematically violated and where militias, under the name of the Libyan Coast Guard, send refugees back the way they came without offering any sort of protection. The mafias pack those who wish to flee onto very precarious vessels that can transport from 150 to 700 people, with fuel that is never enough to reach a safe port.
Once in international waters, luck is their only option. All they can do is wait for someone to find them, rescue them and take them to a safe port in Europe. There is no guarantee that this will happen, despite hundreds of ships sailing in the area each day. Their desperation is so intense that they play all their cards at once.
The Mediterranean is the largest mass grave on the planet
We want to help protect vulnerable lives with our presence and avoid more deaths.
With your help we will fight the violation of human rights at sea
The number of people risking their lives in the Mediterranean in order to flee from hell is not slowing down, that’s why we need to be there.
We were given a sailboat, Astral, that we turned into a rescue and surveillance boat. Now with the Open Arms, our flagship, our team of professionals and volunteers works every day to protect the lives of the people abandoned at sea and to avoid shipwrecks in the international waters of the Mediterranean.
We protect the lives of people in danger at sea who need our help.
Since 2014, 28.013 people have drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach a safe place to continue their lives, without Europe moving a finger to help them, in fact quite the opposite. We don’t want this to happen again. We won’t allow it.
We will be the eyes and the voice that denounce what is going on. What nobody will tell you.
In what we will invest your help?
We need your help so that our rescue and surveillance boat and its crew can stay in the Mediterranean Sea.
Medical team on board, which will assist the people who we rescue.
Team of volunteer lifeguards, who will be our eyes and arms in the sea (food and transportation).
Transformation and equipment of the boat to perform all necessary rescue tasks.
Rescue devices and equipment to perform all rescue tasks in a quick and safe way.
Boat maintenance, to be where we're needed.
Professional captain, who will take us where help is needed.
Medical team on board, which will assist the people who we rescue.
Team of volunteer lifeguards, who will be our eyes and arms in the sea (food and transportation).
Transformation and equipment of the boat to perform all necessary rescue tasks.
Rescue devices and equipment to perform all rescue tasks in a quick and safe way.
Boat maintenance, to be where we're needed.
