Germany to stop funding Mediterranean sea migrant rescues - International
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 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.
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.
The German government provided two million euros ($2.3 million) last year to organisations including SOS Humanity and SOS Mediterranee for rescuing migrants who ran into trouble, the ministry source said.
In the first quarter of this year, sea rescue NGOs received about 900,000 euros in government funding.
"The federal government does not plan to provide further financial support to non-governmental organisations involved in civilian sea rescue," the ministry source told AFP.
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 für Germany (AfD) party.
'Catastrophic signal'
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.
Gordon 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 save lives, he said.
"Now we might have to remain in port despite emergencies at sea," he said.
The news came a week after 21 maritime rescue groups called on Berlin to continue supporting their operations, and urged the European Union to provide substantial funding for rescue patrols and arrival centres.
The organisations said they had rescued more than 175,000 people from the Mediterranean over the past 10 years.
A row erupted between Germany and Italy over the sea rescues in 2023, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni writing a letter to then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz complaining about Berlin funding the operations.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk even waded into the row, saying the Berlin-backed sea rescue operations could be seen as an "invasion" of Italy.
Musk, who used to be a key adviser to US President Donald Trump, vocally backed the AfD ahead of elections in February, in which the party came second and scored a record result.
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