(Brussels) Sea Watch, Solidarity at Sea, Sea Eye, Seebrücke Germany, Open Arms, Doctors Without Borders, and Migrant Offshore Aid Station – these NGOs were all finalists in last year’s Sakharov Prize for their life-saving operations in the Mediterranean, but are now prevented from operating. In a meeting in Brussels, the representatives of these organisations and MEPs of the Civil Liberties and Foreign Affairs committees and Human Rights Subcommittee debated “the legal framework of search and rescue operations as well as the challenges faced by people working in the field”, a statement from the European Parliament reads. The representatives of the NGOs lamented the fact that “their activities are being unjustly criminalised” and that “the media and authorities are focussing their attention now on NGOs carrying out these rescue operations, and not on the humanitarian crisis taking place in the Mediterranean”. The international maritime law stipulates that “people rescued at sea must be brought to a port of safety immediately” and that “the Libyan coast guard should not be conducting search and rescue operations”. During the meeting, a young man who escaped Eritrea, where he “wanted to be a journalist to tell the truth”, and Karin Schmidt, a member of Juventa, who “faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years for saving lives”, also gave their testimonies.