FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Mediterranea was founded in Italy in 2018 by a group of people who couldn’t stand watching thousands of human beings escaping wars and poverty, trying to reach Europe and dying in the total indifference of the World. It is the need for justice and humanity that inspires us. Mediterranea was founded thinking that everyone of us is able do to do something to to save a life. At first, this desire has inspired people socially active, people who stood up for human rights many times, but immediately after many other individuals have followed them. All of them, together, have decided to create a large network, Mediterranea - Saving Humans, to reaffirm that respect for humanity for comes before everything else. So they chose to stop talking about it and start doing it. People from different cultures and political background have contributed and made the first step possible. Now it is everyone’s turn to let Mediterranea sail and grow. 

Saving Humans USA is a Nonprofit Corporation, organized as per Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States, created in June 2019 in support of the Mediterranea platform from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Saving Humans USA is an independent entity whose mission is to "save and relieve migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers who risk their lives traveling from poor countries or escaping war zones and endangered areas". Saving Humans USA raises funds that are entirely devoted to the Mediterranea cause. As any regular Nonprofit corporation, Saving Humans USA has its own bylaws, rules, code of ethics and conflict of interest policies. The Board of Directors of Saving Humans USA is made of US and non US individuals who constitute the governing body of the corporation. Directors and volunteers are not compensated for their service and all funds are used for the mission of the organization.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”

(Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963)

One out of six people who flee from Libya dies in silence, in the indifference of the World. European governments have interrupted the previous joint efforts to rescue these human beings; on the contrary, European governments are financing Libyan militia to detain migrants in torture camps. Migrants are in stay in prison for months, or years, until their families find enough money to pay the Libyan criminals; at that point they are released, they take the sea to Europe on improbable boats and once again Libyan militias, on ships paid by European governments, capture them in the sea and bring them back to the same torture camps. NOGs are needed to witness what is happening and to bring help to those in danger. It is not acceptable that such an enormous tragedy is happening before our eyes. Mediterranea - Saving Humans wants to be there for monitoring, call for rescue and help if necessary. In order to do that there is no alternative to having our own ships and crews. 

Our mission is monitoring. We will be in the sea to witness and report what is happening, in respect of all the international laws and the Law of the Sea, including the obligation to save human life if needed. 

Mediterranea platform is a network of several organizations and individuals of the international civil society, who are coming to the central Mediterranean in help to migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers. NGOs are constantly forced to leave the sea and are criminalized by political rhetoric, yet international laws are on the NGO side. Mediterranea is not an NGO, but a non governmental action designed by organization, including NGOs, like Saving Humans USA. Mediterranea platform is open to all voices – religious, secular, cultural and social – and to all the contributions of whoever wants to be part of it and support it. Mediterranea is a ship for everyone, in the sea and on land. 

We believe in the importance of collective and actions. This is why we are counting on grassroots participation, and we hope to raise funds required for our missions in the sea thanks to the help of many people, associations and groups who find unacceptable that hundreds, thousands of humans die near the European coasts. Sailing is an expensive activity, and being prepared for a possible rescue  mission, with all the required equipment for such situation (life jackets, first aid and medical equipment, etc.) is even more expensive, so everyone's contribution is extremely valuable. Anyone can make his part in this fundraising campaign making a big or small donation at  https://savinghumansusa.org/donate 

International laws do not only prescribe to intervene in case of a shipwreck or dangerous situations in the sea, but also that the rescued people will be brought to a safe harbor. Whoever is rescued must be brought to the closest safe harbor to the place they were found. International treaties, international and European laws, in particular the ones set for refugees and asylum seekers prescribe the way these people will receive aid and help on land. 

A safe harbor is a country which respects international laws, human rights and the dignity of the people it welcomes, including the possibility to request asylum. Today's Libya, as established by the United Nations, doesn’t fulfill those standards and so it is not a safe harbor.