Rescue together

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Rescue together
legal form registered association
founding November 2019
Seat Hanover , GermanyGermanyGermany 
main emphasis Sea rescue
Chair Thies Gundlach (Chairman)

Michael Schwickart (2nd chairman)
Katharina Stamm (treasurer)

Website www.united4rescue.com

Rescue together e. V. is a German association for the rescue of people in the Mediterranean . He is supported by the Evangelical Church in Germany and is involved in the Sea-Watch 4 ship .

history

The foundation in November 2019 goes back to a resolution of the Evangelical Church Congress in June 2019. There, visitors to the Kirchentag had asked for a rescue ship from the Evangelical Church to be sent to the Mediterranean and mobilized around 40,000 supporters. The Evangelical Church thereupon decided, along with other non-governmental organizations, to get involved with their own rescue vehicle for escape and migration across the Mediterranean to the EU .

Together Retten eV is the sponsoring association behind the initiative “United4Rescue - Save Together”.

The planned rescue ship will ultimately be used by the Sea-Watch organization from 2020. The second chairman of Rescue Together is accordingly active at Sea-Watch.

United4Rescue

Groups willing to support were mobilized under the name “United4Rescue” from December 2019. The majority of these are church organizations, but also groups and organizations from the field of social and refugee policy such as ProAsyl , Campact and several refugee councils. “United4Rescue” began at the beginning of December 2019 with the collection of donations for the purchase and conversion of a suitable ship. By the end of December 2019, around 150 civil society groups had agreed to support the project.

Through the sponsoring association, the alliance participated in the bidding process for the Poseidon ship owned by the State of Schleswig-Holstein . The ship was auctioned on January 31, 2020.

United4Rescue emphasizes in its policy statement that people to be rescued in the future have a right to a fair asylum procedure, which United4Rescue sees only guaranteed in Europe. The organization also defends itself in its Ambassador Handbook against allegations and declares that private sea rescue is not a “pull factor” that attracts more migrants to the Mediterranean. Reference was made to a study by the Migration Policy Center and an assessment by the head of the International Organization for Migration in the Mediterranean Federico Soda from the beginning of 2017.

reception

The association's chairman Thies Gundlach promoted a church rescue ship, arguing to save lives and at the same time to draw attention to the fact that the state, European organized sea rescue had been discontinued. One does not want to make politics, but enable or demand Christian-humane politics. Donations to the association would help the Missionary Church and would show that the Church can respond to current problems with fast, flexible projects.

Günter Thomas , theologian at the Ruhr University in Bochum , criticized that the church would first seek a public moral-political test of power with the state with the initiative. The aim is to generate resonance in the media attention economy and to showcase moral superiority. Referring to the aid for the rescued by the state, Thomas wrote that the action was "economically outrageous, since the medium-term consequences of the church's actions are saddled to the general public without being asked."

Hamburg's Second Mayor Katharina Fegebank and Palermo's Mayor Leoluca Orlando expressed support for the alliance's demand that European municipalities should be allowed to accept additional refugees at their own discretion, a decision that so far can only be made by national governments.

Heinrich Bedford-Strohm , Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany , received death threats in connection with the commitment to sea rescue . He defended himself against allegations that this had "nothing to do with political activism, but with the core of Christian belief and action".

Ulrich Reitz wrote at Focus that the church initiative was in a moral gray area. He commented in August 2020 that the Protestant Church does not care about the follow-up costs of their action. Neither the costs, the social consequences, nor the integration burdens that followed the rescues. Reitz saw an attack on Europe's governments by the church initiative and noted that the governments could always withdraw from the fact that they had finally received a mandate from the voters not to accept any further refugees.

Christiane Florin , on the other hand, said on Deutschlandfunk that the question of whether help should be given was "simply unethical". One shouldn't, one must save. In the Evangelical Bavarian Sunday newspaper it was also commented that an alleged pulle effect of sea rescue, i.e. more people would sit in boats because of a lower risk, would be rejected by migration researchers. The desperation of the people is too great.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "About Us" united4rescue.com
  2. ↑ Kirchentag: Church rescue ship for refugees called for. In: evangelisch.de . June 23, 2019, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  3. ↑ establishment of the Action Alliance United4Rescue. In: EKD.de. Evangelical Church in Germany , December 3, 2019, accessed on January 4, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Reinhard Bingener: Synod in Dresden: The EKD and the question of sea rescue . Ed .: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 10, 2019, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Reinhard Bingener: Sea Rescue in the Mediterranean: Evangelical Church wants to participate in another refugee ship . Ed .: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . September 12, 2019, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  6. ^ Doris Bimmer: Bedford-Strohm: death threats because of sea rescue plans. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk . January 4, 2020, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Sea rescue: Alliance wants to send an additional ship. In: idea.de . December 3, 2019, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Alliance collects for new sea rescue ship. In: NDR . December 3, 2019, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Martin Schlorke: Church founds alliance for sea rescue. In: www.pro-medienmagazin.de. December 3, 2019, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Cardinal Marx donates 50,000 euros for a sea rescue ship. In: Der Tagesspiegel . January 7, 2019, accessed January 8, 2020 .
  11. ↑ "All alliance partners at a glance" united4rescue.com
  12. ↑ Die Welt (ed.): Sea rescue in the Mediterranean: Church starts collection for new ship . December 4, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  13. ↑ Great support for the church's refugee ship. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . December 31, 2019, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Die Welt (ed.): United4Rescue: Church reports great support for its own refugee ship . December 30, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  15. ↑ Benjamin Lassiwe: Fundraising begins: Rhenish Church gives 100,000 euros for sea rescue. In: Rheinische Post . December 3, 2019, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  16. ↑ a b Reinhard Bingener: EKD on sea rescue: “Don't just talk, act” . Ed .: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . December 4, 2019, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed January 4, 2020]).
  17. ↑ André Klohn and Matthias Hoenig: "The" Poseidon "is a refugee ship" welt.de from January 31, 2020
  18. ↑ Reinhard Bingener: "" Don't just talk, act "" . FAZ of December 4, 2019
  19. ↑ United for Rescue: "Ambassador's Manual" United for Rescue, 2020, accessed on August 13, 2020
  20. ↑ a b Should you donate for the EKD rescue ship? In: idea.de . December 10, 2019, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Peter Burghardt: A ship for humanity. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . December 3, 2019, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  22. ^ Bedford-Strohm - Death threats against EKD council chairmen. In: Deutschlandfunk . January 4, 2020, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  23. ^ Death threats against Bishop Bedford-Strohm after refugee ship initiative. In: Augsburger Allgemeine . January 4, 2020, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Ulrich Reitz: "With its" Sea Watch "mission, the Church is attacking Europe's governments" focus.de from August 17, 2020
  25. ↑ Christiane Florin: Enough space for salvation and sea rescue . In: deutschlandfunk.de . August 6, 2020, accessed August 17, 2020.
  26. ↑ Renate Haller: "The 'Sea-Watch 4' can reduce the number of deaths in the Mediterranean - and that's a lot" . In: sontagsblatt.de . August 12, 2020, accessed August 17, 2020.