Berlin decided. NGOs engaged in the rescue of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea will no longer benefit from any financial aid in the federal state. This decision was confirmed this Wednesday by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, marking a clear break with the line defended so far by the old coalition, in particular under the environmental impulse.
“The federal government no longer provides subsidies to NGOs engaged in civil rescue”said diplomatic sources mentioned by RFI. The latter specify that in the first quarter of 2025, 900,000 euros were already paid, for a total of 2 million euros unlocked in 2024. Among the beneficiary structures were SOS Humanity, SOS Méditerranée, RESQSHIP, SEA-EYE or Sant’Egidio.
Merz’s firm policy
This vision tour occurs less than two months after the coming to power of the Conservative Friedrich Merz, a new chancellor at the head of a coalition with the SPD social democrats. A supporter of a hard line in migratory matters, the leader of the CDU already hammered, before his election, that only a strict policy would contain the push of the nationalist right, embodied by AFD.
Since its entry into office, his government has multiplied the restrictive announcements, promising in particular to repress a large majority of asylum seekers at the land borders of Germany. The reactions to stop these funding were not long in coming.
Britta Haßelmann, leader of environmental deputies, castigated a “Dramatic decision”, Who “Only will widen the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean”. Same bell at Gorden Isler, president of Sea-Eye, who deplores a “Catastrophic signal” :: “Rescuers may be forced to stay at the dock despite emergencies at sea”he alerted.
Of the 21 NGOs active in the rescue area in the central Mediterranean, 10 are German. Together, they claim to have rescued more than 175,000 people in the past ten years. An assessment that this new political orientation could well compromise.
