GERMANY delivered a devastating blow today to a human rights organisation operating in the Aegean Sea by ordering the detention of its ships.

Not-for-profit association Mare Liberum told the German Transport Ministry last week that it intended to send its ships, the Mare Liberum and Sebastian K, to the Aegean and resume monitoring the Greek and Turkish coastguard’s treatment of refugees, despite a recent change in the law designed to stop them.

“We are furious and won’t accept the blockade of our mission for solidarity and human rights,” said Mare Liberum board member Hanno Bruchmann.