The German government is to cut funding for groups that rescue migrants in distress when they cross the Mediterranean Sea.
New budget plans by Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil do not include money for migrant rescue, Germany’s Foreign Ministry has said.
The German government had been giving about €2 million ($2.34 million) a year to the cause, with almost €900,000 going to groups such as Sea-Eye, SOS Humanity and Sant’Egidio, according to TV news channel Deutsche Welle (DW).
Sea-Eye hit back at the decision, fearing that without financing, it may no longer be able to operate.
“We’re filling a gap in the Mediterranean that should have been closed by European states, including Germany,” the group’s chairman Gorden Isler told DW.
The Mediterranean is one of the most dangerous migrant routes in the world, with more 32,000 people reported missing there since 2014, according to the Missing Migrants Project (MMP).
The deadliest year for migrants on record was 2024, with nearly 9,000 killed worldwide, more than 2,450 of those in the Mediterranean. Almost 750 people have died or are missing after attempting to cross the sea so far this year.
Newly elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has long contested funding sea rescue operations and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul claimed while in opposition that “sea rescue organisations were de facto collaborating with smuggling groups and promoting irregular migration to Europe”.
Opposition politician Jamila Schafer, of the Greens, said cutting funding would make the routes even deadlier without reducing migration.
“We pay for a fire service to save lives on land,” she told German news agency DPA. “We should also not let people drown in the sea.”
Italy’s right-wing, populist government passed a law in February 2023 to clampdown on migrant rescue operations. That year, the number of migrant deaths and missing persons peaked at 3,155, the highest since 2014, MMP data showed.