“WE ARE going to sail,” human rights activists told the Star today despite the German government’s recent law changes aimed at stopping them.

In June the country’s transport ministry blocked German-flagged humanitarian ships from sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas when it changed the wording of a law regulating the safety requirements for yachts and other small vessels.

“The change of law means that we can’t register our boat as a leisure craft and have to meet the same safety requirements as merchant vessels,” Lisa, a German activist from the Mare Liberum, told the Star.

“It is not possible to do this with the Mare Liberum. The boat is from 1917 and the adjustments we would have to make to the boat just can’t be done,” she said.

Greece has been repeatedly accused this year of violently pushing refugees crossing the Aegean back to Turkey, a breach of international refugee conventions and often referred to as “pushback.”

The Mare Liberum has been unable to document what is happening in the waters between the two countries since the law change. But the ship’s crew are eager to get back in the Aegean because, Lisa says, the situation has become disastrous.

“In the last few days there were two boats that landed on Lesbos and the just people disappeared. They were probably pushed back to Turkey.

“Incidents like these have been ongoing. We know of at least 150 such push-backs since March.”

On Wednesday the Mare Liberum activists told the transport ministry that they intend to sail their new ship, the Sebastian K, from Italy to the Aegean and resume operating the Mare Liberum also.

“We don’t know how they’ll respond. But from our perspective, there is really no need at all for us to have another safety certificate because what we have already is more than enough. Also, we haven’t had any safety incidents or problems with our ships.

“We’re not doing this to provoke anyone. The escalation of violence in the Aegean is so high that we want to go out because there is always the chance that our presence will prevent these violent push-backs from happening.

“It’s so important that the Greek and Turkish coastguards’ treatment of the migrants is documented,” she said.