Mediterranea Saving Humans APS is an Italian "civil society platform" that carries out rescue operations in the Mediterranean sea.
It was founded in 2018 to keep watch of the situation in the Mediterranean sea and to save lives in difficulty after the majority of other NGOs were not able to act due the legal obstacles created by the Italian authorities.
[6] The platform was launched by activists Luca Casarini, Beppe Caccia, Alessandro Metz, with the first financial contributions from the philosopher Michael Hardt, financial broker and writer Guido Maria Brera, Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana (ARCI), and the Italian political party Sinistra Italiana.
[14] On 5 July 2019, the ship Alex, a yacht with a sail which had initially just been tasked with accompanying the Mare Jonio, reached the waters off the coast of Lampedusa with fifty four people on board, picked up the previous day.
Mare Jonio was forbidden from allowing the remaining 34 rescued people to reach land in an Italian port because the operators would have not respected the laws and caused an emergency situation.
[32] On 11 September 2020, 27 migrants who had been on board the Maersk Etienne since 5 August after being rescued in international waters were transferred to the Mare Jonio and brought to shore.
Whilst assisting a vessel in distress, distributing life vests to people on a ship the Mare Jonio was threatened by the Libyan 'coastguard'.
The project was made possible with a loan from an Italian ethical bank, Banca Etica, and a crowdfunding campaign with over 3000 supporters which raised over 1 million euros.
The Maersk Etienne crew took the refugees on board but they were not allowed to disembark in Malta as the Maltese authorities said that the rescue did not happen in its territorial waters.
On 11 September, after 38 days on board, the refugees were transferred to Mediterranea's Mare Jonio vessel, and subsequently permitted to land.
[44][45] On 19 July 2022, the Italian rapper Ghali donated a RHIB (Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boat) to Mediterranea which he named Bayna, which means 'it is clear' in Arabic.