Publications

Recentely published:

  • Italy’s New Migration Law: A Tactical “Naval Blockade” Challenging International Law
    Italy’s New Migration Law: A Tactical “Naval Blockade” Challenging International Law

    The Italian government has recently presented a draft law that significantly impacts the country’s migration and asylum framework, in part to implement the new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum at the national level. However, the timing and substance of…


  • The proliferation of ‘border zones’: how Italy is preparing to implement the European Pact on Migration
    The proliferation of ‘border zones’: how Italy is preparing to implement the European Pact on Migration

    With only few days to go before the implementation of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, it seems worthwhile to turn our attention once again to Italy, as a border country, and to Sicily, which over the years has…


  • Commercial vessels in Search and Rescue
    Commercial vessels in Search and Rescue

    Navigating maritime law, politics and profits For over a decade, the Civil Fleet has operated in the Central Mediterranean, monitoring Europe’s deadly border regime and facilitating or carrying out rescues at sea. Merchant vessels have also played an important role…


  • April 2026
    April 2026

    April 1 Following an alert by Alarm Phone, Aurora reaches the Didon oil platform where a group of 44 people had been stranded for 3 days. Aurora is assigned the distant port of Empedolce as place of safety, but due…


  • March 2026 – NEXUS case
    March 2026 – NEXUS case

    A pushback by merchant vessel to Libya against the wishes of captain and crew On 10 March 2026, Alarm Phone received reports of a boat carrying 38 people in distress while travelling from Tobruk in eastern Libya to Crete. The…


  • March 2026
    March 2026

    March 4 After an alert by Alarm Phone, Ocean Viking rescues 36 people from a rubber boat. Distant port Ancona is assigned, requiring 4 additional days of sailing for the survivors.  March 5 Alarm Phone alerts another case which is…


  • February 2026
    February 2026

    February 2 Pilotes Volontaires’ Colibri 2 alerts a wooden boat which is then rescued by the Sea Eye 5. 47 survivors are safely disembarked in Vibo Valentia.  February 3 Humanity 1 rescues 12 people in international waters off the coast…


  • Meloni on the defensive? What’s next?
    Meloni on the defensive? What’s next?

    It has certainly already been an ongoing pain for the Meloni-Piantedosi government to lose many important court cases regarding migration. Over the last few months, civil fleet actors regularly won appeals against attempts to detain rescue ships. The intention to…


  • Biometric experiments and arbitrary practices targeting people on the move 
    Biometric experiments and arbitrary practices targeting people on the move 

    Lampedusa. Picture: Maldusa Over the past month, Lampedusa has become a testing ground for the introduction of new screening and border management tools, most notably the new “Screening Toolbox” package made available by the Frontex Agency. The pilot, which lasted…


  • Seven Hours for Seven Years: Freedom for the El Hiblu 3
    Seven Hours for Seven Years: Freedom for the El Hiblu 3

    Call for solidarity with El Hiblu 3! 28 March 2026 in Valletta, Malta 09:00 to 16:00 CET (place tbc) Join us for a seven-hour vigil with a press conference, speeches, street-theatre, music, info-table, banners and more to protest against seven…