Claire Juchat / SOS MEDITERRANEE
No one should be left to drown at sea. And no one who comes to their aid should have to fear the consequences of doing so.
On 6 September, lifeboats of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) were tasked by HM Coastguard to rescue around 120 people in distress from a single small boat in the Channel. In the days that followed, RNLI volunteers and staff were subjected to online and, in some cases, physical abuse. The names, addresses and photographs of individual crew members were published online, with threats against them and their families. Police are investigating. In a statement on 8 September, RNLI Chief Executive Peter Sparkes described the abuse as unacceptable and rumours that the RNLI houses asylum seekers on its premises as baseless.
The duty to render assistance to anyone in danger at sea is a legal obligation. It is set out in Article 98 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. It binds every master and every Coastal State. It applies whoever the person is and however they came to be there. The RNLI launches when the Coastguard asks it to, rescues those in danger of drowning, and hands them to the authorities. That is the whole of it.
Those who answer a call for help must never become targets for doing so.
SOS MEDITERRANEE stands in solidarity with the RNLI, its volunteer crews and staff, and with all people in distress at sea.
Read the RNLI statement of 8 September 2026
