[1] As well as maintaining a permanent base on Lesbos, the NGO carries out its rescue operations from three ships, a sailing yacht Astral,[2] the Golfo Azzurro[3] and Open Arms.

(Honouring Excellence in Rescue Operations) Awards for their participation in saving the lives of over 200 people who had capsized their overloaded vessel off the north shore of Lesbos.

As an NGO, Proactiva developed from Pro-Activa Serveis Aquàtics, a company providing lifeguard and water rescue services, located in Badalona, Spain.

[15] Likewise, a December 2016 report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) analysing the EU's accusations, based on an internal report from the European border agency, Frontex, that the humanitarian organisations running search and rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean were doing so in collusion with smugglers or were helping them to carry out their deadly trade, concluded that "... the alternative implied by Frontex’s concerns about our rescue operations is to let people drown as a strategy to deter the smugglers".

[16] Also responding to Frontex's allegations that aid groups were indirectly supporting criminal traffickers, Mario Giro, Italy's deputy foreign minister, said it showed a fundamental misunderstanding of so-called "push" and "pull" factors, adding that it was "a misleading controversy being used for internal purposes".

[19] On the other hand, researchers also cite testimonies of smugglers bribing police in Greece, Turkey and other countries of transit and that state officials, the military, law enforcement, and border guards are also involved in smuggling.

[51] Designed by Philip Rhodes and built in 1970,[52] the yacht featured in the documentary recorded on board that same month by Jordi Évole for Salvados, directed by Évoli for Atresmedia Televisión.

[55] Based in Malta, this vessel covered the NGO's rescue operations in the central Mediterranean region and in international waters off the northern coast of Libya.