Joint Statement: Free Movement! Open Borders. End Deaths.
by MV Louise Michele staff and crew
3 February 2025 (original post)
Ten Years after the Summer of Migration – First Invitation for a Transnational Chain of Actions culminating in September 2025
2025 marks the ten-year anniversary of the most dystopian and utopian events we have seen at the borders of Europe. We want to recall these events to denounce the lethal European border regime, and to reclaim the possibility that it can be overcome by freedom of movement for all and solidarity with people on the move. We want to invite for a collective process, in which we aim for a decentralized transnational mobilization with multifaceted actions in summer and autumn 2025.
On 18 April 2015, the catastrophe that was waiting to happen, after Italy and the EU ended proactive rescue operations, materialized. A fishing vessel capsized in the middle of the night in the waters between Libya and Italy. More than 1,100 people (from across Africa and the Indian subcontinent) sank within minutes. This shipwreck caused the largest loss of life in recent Mediterranean history. The families of the deceased and disappeared continue to mourn their loved ones. We have not forgotten either. Their memory strengthens our determination to struggle against the EU’s deadly border regime!
Following this policy-driven catastrophe, the EU did not end its discriminatory and militarized migration policies, which force illegalized migrants from most of the world to embark on dangerous journeys, and neither did it reinstate proactive rescue missions. As a result, border deaths have continued, and more than 30,000 deaths have been recorded over the last ten years across the sea.
But this shipwreck did spark the outrage of ordinary citizens, who decided to act in solidarity with migrants and to try and fill the lethal rescue gap created by state policies. In the summer of 2015, they deployed civilian rescue vessels which soon became a veritable flotilla! The flotilla has persisted in its action to this day, despite the increasing criminalization of rescue. At sea as on land, the multiple practices and infrastructures of solidarity that have emerged are essential to support migrants’ movement and to fight deaths!
In summer 2015, in the eastern Mediterranean, people on the move—mainly Syrians, but also Afghans and migrants of other nationalities—began crossing in greater numbers. From the Greek coasts, they trekked across the Balkans and continued to overcome one border after another on their way to north and west Europe. At the beginning of September 2015—with the historic “March of Hope” from Budapest—the European border regime temporarily collapsed. For a few months, migrants moved freely across Europe, even using public buses and trains to reach their destinations, where they were welcomed by solidarity movements in many cities.
During this summer of migration, open borders and freedom of movement for all were no longer slogans or distant utopias but a lived reality. And while there were shipwrecks in the Aegean, because migrants crossed a shorter maritime space—and because their travel was self-organized and happened in broad daylight—the Mediterranean was safer that summer than at any point in recent decades.
The Summer of Migration taught us a simple lesson: border deaths are not inevitable! They could become history tomorrow! Without the EU’s segregating visa- and border regime, nobody would use unseaworthy boats or dangerous routes. Smugglers would cease to exist, as their service would no longer be necessary. This lesson was confirmed in 2022, when refugees from Ukraine could move and settle freely all over Europe. No deaths at borders, no smugglers needed. Open borders = end of deaths! This is the powerful equation we derive from our experience.
The Summer of Migration was unexpected. It created a temporary reality that only months before had seemed nearly unimaginable. Today, in a context of mounting racism and fascist movements, and as the EU deploys its war on migration across Europe’s borders, these memories seem as something from another time and world. It is our imagination itself that seems bordered by the violence of our dystopian present.
But 2015 is still with us! The composition and fabric of our societies has been deeply transformed, and made more diverse and beautiful for that. Self-organized movements, solidarity networks, and support projects that emerged ten years ago still exist and persist despite criminalization. Freedom of movement is seized and practiced by migrants every day as they cross borders at the risk of their lives.
We want to raise our voices together, as loud as possible, to break the normalization of migrants’ deaths. We mourn our brothers and sisters, and we refuse to accept that these deaths continue! We want to make visible the continuous struggles for the right to move and stay, to come and to go! We may be a minority in increasingly racist societies, but we exist, and together we can fight back against racism and fascism!
We want to come together, and through common struggle, create a space for joy and hope in these dark times. Struggling in solidarity with people on the move must be a central component of the struggle against fascism today!
With this vision of struggle we want to invite all refugee and migrant autonomous organizations, all networks of solidarity and support, to join and to prepare a transnational chain of decentralized activities throughout the coming summer and culminating in September 2025.
Ten years after the 18 April shipwreck and the Summer of Migration, we want to say: We refuse this deadly and unjust border regime! We refuse and resist deportations and detention, pushbacks, and the criminalization of migration. Migrant deaths are not inevitable! Freedom of movement is a possibility, we saw it, and we see it every day in the cracks of Europe’s borders! Solidarity still exists and can be the basis for a beautiful society in which all can live free and equal!
Lightly edited by Antidote
About the authors:
The MV Louise Michel is a former French navy boat customized to perform search and rescue. Measuring 30 meters in length and capable of up to 28 knots, she was bought with proceeds from the sale of Banksy artwork—who then decorated her with a fire extinguisher. She is operated and crewed by a team of international activist rescue professionals. Named after the French anarchist Louise Michel, she aims to combine sea rescue with the principles of queer-feminism, anti-racism and anti-fascism. She runs on a flat hierarchy and a vegan diet.
It might seem incredible there is a need for a private emergency vessel in one of Europe’s busiest waterways, but there is. In response to people trying to cross the Mediterranean in search of safety, European states stopped reacting properly to distress calls from people on the move, leaving them to drift at sea and collaborating with armed forces to illegally prevent them from crossing. Europe’s Mediterranean border is the world’s deadliest.
The MV Louise Michel and her team of activists and volunteers actively resist the discriminatory power structures of nationalism, racism, patriarchy, and capitalism. The MV Louise Michel intends to uphold maritime law by rescuing anyone in peril without prejudice. In solidarity with people on the move, we are working against any policy that willingly lets people drown at sea. We are fighting for freedom of movement for everyone, because as Louise Michel said, “Something besides charity is needed in order to provide bread for everyone.” Humanitarian aid alone is not the answer.
All images and mission statement via MV Louise Michel dot org
