SOS Méditerranée, Switzerland

SOS Méditerranée Switzerland is a European civil society association fot the rescue of people in distress in the Mediterranean Sea, independent of any political party and any denomination and is based on the respect of the Human being and its dignity, regardless of its nationality, origin, social, religious, political or ethnic belonging. SOS Méditerranée Switzerland was created in August 2017 and is part of the European network SOS Méditerranée created in 2015.

Objectives

Our mission is to:

Save human lives

• By rescue operations at sea of boats in distress
• By providing emergency medical treatment on board

Protect and assist

• By listening and giving medical and psychological care on board
• By connecting people to supporting institutions in Europe

Testify about the realities and faces of migration

• By informing the European public about the situation of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, testifying about the realities of migration and commemorating those that never arrived
• By raising awareness amongst public opinion, the European institutions and the national governments

Activities

Since its first mission in February 2016, the Aquarius and the SOS Méditerranée teams have rescued 29,523 people: 11,261 over ten months in 2016; 15,078 in 2017; 3,184 since the beginning of 2018. We should note that in 2018, the activities of the Aquarius have been steadily hindered, requiring him to remain docked several times. The Aquarius conducted a total of 241 rescue operations.

Babies, children and teenagers represent about ¼ of those rescued by our teams at sea. Like their elders, they experienced hunger, thirst, beatings, detention in Libya and suffered the hardship of crossing.

Rescue operations are happening only under the coordination of the MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Center). As soon as the boat in distress is located, we deploy our lifeboats, go closer to the boat in distress and distribute lifejackets to people. Then, we transfer them safely on our boat, the Aquarius. Médecins Sans Frontières is also working in partnership with SOS Méditerranée to offer medical and psychological assistance.

In Switzerland, volunteers are active in five cities to raise awareness of the Swiss population on the duty to rescue and to testify on the realities and faces of migration.

Contact

SOS MEDITERRANEE Switzerland
Rue de Varembé, 3
1202 Geneva
Switzerland

E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: https://sosmediterranee.ch/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sosmedsuisse/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SOSMedSuisse