Editorial
How to support the Mediterranean NGOs challenging the Italian government
The Italian government has worked to block humanitarian intervention in the Mediterranean Sea. But with help from a crowdfunding campaign, the Mediterranea project is fighting back.
The campaign by the M5S-Lega government against NGOs has led to a creeping militarization of the sea and of humanitarian intervention. We need to break open this trap that is killing migrants and leaving them prey to traffickers profiting from human pain.
An Italian ship, the tugboat Mare Ionio, departed this week from our shores to carry out activities including monitoring, bearing witness to and denouncing the dramatic situation that constantly forces women, men and children to face enormous dangers in the absence of any help, in the silence and complicit indifference of the Italian and European governments.
The project counts among its supporters a number of associations, non-profit organizations and NGOs, including the national leadership of ARCI, Ya Basta from Bologna, the NGO Sea-Watch, the online magazine I Diavoli and the social enterprise Moltivolti from Palermo.
The sponsors of the project are a group of parliamentarians, with the support of representatives from the world of culture and civil society.
This is the first mission in international waters fully organized in Italy, and it has been named Operation Mediterranea.
Il manifesto will publish daily updates from the ship.
YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PROJECT THROUGH THE CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN.
Click here to learn more about the project, and track the position of the ship at vesselfinder.
Originally published at on 2015-10-08