17 hours ago
Germany to cut funds for Mediterranean migrant rescues, sparking outcry
BERLIN, June 26 — Germany's conservative-led government will stop funding groups that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, a foreign ministry source said Wednesday, prompting opposition parties to warn that the decision could worsen a 'humanitarian crisis'.
'The federal government does not plan to provide further financial support to non-governmental organisations involved in civilian sea rescue,' the source told AFP.
The foreign ministry under the previous coalition, headed by the Greens minister Annalena Baerbock, had provided substantial financial support for NGOs that rescue migrants seeking to head to Europe from Africa, often in rickety boats.
That had drawn criticism from the centre-right CDU party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz that took power in May, and sparked a row with Rome since many of the rescued migrants were brought ashore in Italy.
In 2024, the German government provided €2 million (RM9.9 million) in funding to organisations including SOS Humanity and SOS Mediterranee for conducting rescues of migrants who ran into trouble in the Mediterranean, the ministry source said.
In the first quarter of this year, sea rescue NGOs received about €900,000 in government funding, it said.
The withdrawal of funding comes as Merz's new government pursues a crackdown on irregular immigration, seeking to combat the growing appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The Green party criticised the move as a 'disastrous decision by the CDU' and its junior coalition partner, the centre-left SPD.
'The coalition is predictably exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean and causing human suffering,' Greens lawmaker Britta Hasselmann told AFP.
Gorden Isler, chairman of the sea rescue NGO Sea-Eye, said the move sent a 'catastrophic signal'.
Financial support for Sea-Eye had helped the group conduct 'missions and saved lives. Now we might have to remain in port despite emergencies at sea,' he said. — AFP
