MEDITERRANEAN: Another tragedy in the Central Mediterranean ― NGO evacuates people from ship after EU member state authorities refuse to intervene ― 9,000 people have reportedly left Cyprus in 2025 ― Greek parliament passes ‘draconian’ asylum…

• Three Sudanese sisters have died in the Central Mediterranean.
• An NGO search and rescue (SAR) ship has been forced to evacuate a group of people from an Egyptian supply ship after EU member state authorities refused to intervene.
• Approximately 9,000 third-country nationals have reportedly left Cyprus since the start of 2025.
• The Greek parliament has adopted a law that will severely toughen penalties for people whose asylum claims are rejected.
• The European Court of Human Rights has issued a new decision preventing the deportation of a group of refugees from Greece.
• The Greek government is planning to tighten the rules governing NGOs that work on issues related to migration and asylum.
• AN NGO SAR ship has defied the instructions of the Italian Ministry of the Interior and disembarked a group of people on the island of Sicily.

Three Sudanese sisters have died in the Central Mediterranean. According to the search and rescue (SAR) NGO RESQSHIP, the girls aged nine, 11 and 17, were travelling in a “dangerously overcrowded” rubber dinghy that took on water a few hours after leaving the Libyan city of Zwara en route to the Italian island of Lampedusa on the night of 22/23 August. RESQSHIP’s Nadir vessel was able to rescue 65 people, including the sisters’ mother and brother, three pregnant women and a three-month old baby, but its crew were unable to locate a fourth person who had fallen overboard prior to the rescue. The bodies of the girls, the surviving members of their family and the other survivors were taken to Lampedusa on 23 August.

An NGO SAR ship has been forced to evacuate a group of people from an Egyptian supply ship after EU member state authorities refused to intervene. On 2 September, Sea-Watch reported that its Aurora rescue vessel had evacuated 41 people who had been stranded at sea for six days from an Egyptian tugboat. According to a press statement, the NGO had repeatedly called on Italian and Maltese authorities to intervene in the incident which took place in Malta’s SAR zone but neither initiated a rescue. In addition, two days earlier, a Tunisian naval vessel had arrived on the scene with the intention of forcibly taking the people to Tunisia but they had refused to board it. Eventually, the Tunisian navy instructed the crew of the tugboat to allow Sea-Watch to evacuate the people. Commenting on the incident, Bana Mahmood from Sea-Watch said: “Forty-one people were ignored in the Mediterranean sea for six days, despite a clear duty to rescue them. The fact that a civil ship had to intervene is a shocking example of the systematic violation of the law by European states”.

Approximately 9,000 third-country nationals have reportedly left Cyprus since the start of 2025. According to the Cyprus News Agency, this includes approximately 4,100 Syrian nationals (including more than 1,100 children) who participated in a “voluntary repatriation scheme” that has been strongly criticised by NGOs. In June, ECRE member organisation the Cyprus Refugee Council issued a warning to Syrian nationals in Cyprus: “If you or your family are considering returning to Syria you will be requested to withdraw your asylum application (close file) OR withdraw your subsidiary protection/recognised refugee status,” it posted on social media, adding: “Please note that if you withdraw your status and then decide you want to stay in Cyprus, you will NOT be able to reinstate your status as asylum seeker or subsidiary protection”.

The Greek parliament has adopted a law that will severely toughen penalties for people whose asylum claims are rejected. The law, which was approved by MPs on 2 September, provides for fines of up to € 10,000 for “illegal entry” and prison sentences of up to five years for unsuccessful asylum applicants who do not leave Greece within 14 days. It also expands the list of countries to which people can be returned, increases the length of time that arrivals who do not have the correct documentation can be detained from 18 to 24 months, and removes the possibility for people to regularise their status after spending seven years in the country. Addressing MPs in advance of the vote, Minister for Migration and Asylum Thanos Plevris justified the law on the grounds that “Greek citizens want to be protected”. “The message is clear [for migrants]: if your asylum request is rejected, you have two choices. Either you go to jail or return to your homeland. The Greek state does not accept you (…) You are not welcome,” he added. Opposition MPs and NGOs have denounced the new law. PASOK MP Nadia Giannakopoulou described it as “a law of lawlessness and chaos” and “an antisocial law” while SYRIZA MP Giorgos Psychogios called it “an inhuman bill, which introduces institutional racism and violates legality”. The director of ECRE member organisation the Greek Council for Refugees, Lefteris Papagiannakis was equally scathing: “With this openly racist law, he is clearly trying to enlarge his voter pool by appealing to the far right,” he said.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has issued a new decision preventing the deportation of a group of refugees from Greece. The interim measures order, which was issued on 29 August, has indicated to the Greek government not to deport four Eritrean nationals who have been detained in the Amygdaleza detention centre since mid-July until they are granted access to asylum procedures. According to ECRE member organisation Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), which is representing the four people involved, they have made asylum applications but the Greek authorities have refused to register them citing the suspension of access to asylum that has been in force since 11 July. “The ECtHR’s interim measures order provides a crucial and necessary safeguard for these people until their asylum claims are registered and examined in Greece,” RSA wrote in a press release on 2 September. A similar order was issued by the ECtHR on 14 August in the case of eight Sudanese nationals who were also affected by the asylum suspension.

The Greek government is planning to tighten the rules governing NGOs that work on issues related to migration and asylum. According to the Kathimerini newspaper, Minister for Migration and Asylum Thanos Plevris is expected to announce that NGOs may be removed from the official registry “if they promote their own migration policy that opposes the government’s, if they legally challenge decisions such as administrative detentions or asylum suspensions, or if funds received are found to be misused”. Although removal from the registry would not result in NGOs being forced to close down, it would prevent them from having access to “state-controlled migrant facilities”. Since the registry was established in 2020, only the approximately 100 NGOs that are officially registered have been able to access these facilities. Officials are reported to have said that, although most NGOs have been “doing good work”, some have displayed what they describe as “increasingly anti-institutional behaviour, including advising migrants to defy state decisions and laws”. Thanos Plevris is expected to establish a working group to revise entry and stay criteria for the registry in early September and the Ministry of Migration and Asylum is expected to launch financial audits of registered NGOs that participate in funded programmes at the same time.

An NGO SAR ship has defied the instructions of the Italian Ministry of the Interior and disembarked a group of people on the island of Sicily. The Mediterranea, which is operated by the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans (MSH), had rescued 10 people in the Sicilian Channel when it was ordered to disembark them in Genoa – approximately 1,000 kilometres away – in the early hours of 22 August. The crew decided that it was in the best interest of the rescued people to disembark them in the Sicilian port of Trapani instead. Commenting on the decision, Beppe Caccia from MSH, who was onboard the ship, said: “The Ministry of Interior wanted to force these ten persons to endure an additional three days of navigation (the time needed to reach the port of Genoa, 1,000 kilometres away), subjecting them all to additional suffering (…) With waves as high as three meters, we chose to go to the nearest port”. His words were echoed by MSH President Laura Marmorale who said: “It is unacceptable to leave traumatized shipwrecked persons on board a ship, exposing them once again to a situation that reminds them of the hell they just lived. It is like forcing a burn victim to remain in the flames. The cure begins with understanding, the ability to place yourself in the shoes of the other person. This is why we decided to dock in Trapani”. On 25 August, MSH reported that the captain of the Mediterranea had been issued with “a fine of up to €10,000 and an administrative detention whose duration will be decided by the Prefect of Trapani within the next five days”. “This is an obscene measure,” said Laura Marmorale, adding: “The government is blocking a ship in port that is supposedly ready to depart to continue its rescue operations, a necessary activity given the tragic toll of shipwrecks in recent weeks south of Lampedusa. They are taking revenge and attacking us because we saved ten young people from certain death and disembarked them in the nearest safe place for treatment”.

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