Air-Sea Rescue. Crews Deadlocked in Malta: Pastor Rekowski (EKD) in La Valletta (Malta)

Rome (NEV), July 12, 2018 –The chair of the Advisory Commission on Migration and Integration of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) pastor Manfred Rekowski, will travel to Malta to meet the crew members of both the German and Swiss vessels the  Sea-Watch 3 and the Moonbird respectively. Blocked for days – the first in the port of La Valletta, the second at the Malta airport, where it is based – are banned by local authorities from leaving the island. To date the reasons for this ban are unknown The EKD, a generous supporter of the Moonbird wants to get a picture of the situation. Therefore, Pastor Rekowski will be there from the 16 to 18 of July. “Right now, while the civilian rescue vessels are systematically prevented from rescuing, it is necessary to observe from the air what is happening in that part of the Mediterranean – Pastor Rekowski who is also the president of Protestant Church in the Rhineland wrote in his blog. People do not die at sea only because there is no longer someone who reports about shipwrecks. What the NGOs are subject to – prohibitions or arbitrary seizures – perhaps is also happening in other parts of the world. What is happening in the European Union is a scandal”

There will be meetings with captains, humanitarian workers and volunteers of the “Seawatch” and the “Humanitarian Pilots Initiative”, as well as a moment of recollection at the “Santa Maria Addolorata in Paola” cemetery in La Valletta in memory of the migrants perished at sea.

It will be possible to follow the journey of Pastor Rekowski on the Facebook page of the EKD and the one of the EKiR.

At the end of the event, the EKD is expected to make a statement.

(For the press: wolfgang.beiderwieden@ekir.de)