Each year, tens of thousands of asylum seekers flee war & poverty by boat, making the dangerous trek across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Humanitarian rescue boats patrol the seas to save them from drowning. Over the past 4 years, sea rescue has been hampered by EU migration policy. Join Haidi Sadik, a humanitarian aid worker with Sea-Watch, as she discusses ongoing attempts to criminalize relief efforts, including the arrest of the captain of the Sea-Watch 3 who faces possibly 10 years of incarceration for the “crime” of saving lives. Lunch will be provided.

Haidi Sadik is a humanitarian who has worked with displaced people in both large international NGOs and small grassroots initiatives, mostly in humanitarian programme design and management. Haidi has been involved in Mediterranean rescue missions since 2017 and is now working with Sea-Watch, for whom she is a spokesperson. Haidi studied politics and international development in Amsterdam and conflict and human rights in London, where she has long been based and engaged in asylum rights advocacy and voluntary work with refugees.