An incident occurred yesterday morning in which the Freedom Flotilla, en route to Gaza, rescued Sudanese migrants in distress at sea. The Flotilla’s vessel “Madleen” received a distress alert from Frontex while sailing between Crete and Libya, reporting that a rubber dinghy was in trouble.
The crew of the Madleen notified Greek and Egyptian authorities who responded by saying that they were too far to provide aid. Soon later a vessel from the Libyan Coast Guard arrived at the scene to pick up the Sudanese immigrants.
Upon realising that the approaching coast guard vessel was Libyan, four Sudanese migrants jumped off the dinghy to avoid being detained by the Libyan authorities and were rescued by the crew of the Madleen. The crew is now calling on Greek and European authorities to accept entry of the Sudanese migrants into Europe. African immigrants are often weary of being captured by Libyan authorities due to their extensive abusive practices on migrant detainees.
The Freedom Flotilla has renewed its mission to deliver aid to Gaza after its previous mission was aborted following an attack on its vessel “Conscience” by Israeli drones. Currently, the Madleen is being crewed by 12 volunteers that include Greta Thunberg and French Member of the European Parliament, Rima Hassan. The French MEP is calling for European authorities to urge safe passage of the Madleen to Gaza. The Madlene departed from Catania, Sicily on June 1st.
The Israeli Defence Forces warned the crew of the Madleen that they will be arrested before entering Gaza. The IDF is currently conducting a genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza called “Gideon Chariots” and Gaza is being left short of humanitarian aid as part of Israel’s wider plan to punish the people of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Minister of Defence are wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity over their war in Gaza.
In the year 2010, the IDF boarded six vessel of the Freedom Flotilla that were en route to Gaza and killed up to 10 crew members before detaining all the others.
Newsroom
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