(Marseille) The NGO SOS Méditerranée has lodged a complaint against X in the face of the “surge of hatred” and death threats which followed the landing in France in November of around 230 migrants rescued by theocean vikinghis ambulance ship.
This complaint, dated January 30, was filed with the public prosecutor’s office in Marseille, the city in the south of France where the association is headquartered, she said in a press release on Tuesday.
“Disparaging and defamatory remarks” made in particular by political figures have also been reported to the prosecution, “in order to denounce the deleterious climate of which our association is a victim”, she adds.
In October, Italy, where the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni had just come to power, refused the disembarkation of migrants rescued by theocean viking. France had finally given the green light to the landing in Toulon, after 21 days at sea.
“During the blocking of the ship and after its disembarkation, the SOS Méditerranée association and its teams [ont été] the target of an outpouring of violence and hatred by letters, emails and on social networks, ”detail his lawyers, in the complaint that AFP was able to consult.
“These particularly violent remarks have harmed all the employees, at sea and on land, threatened in their physical integrity”, they add, insisting on the “collective trauma” still alive within an association already targeted in the past. .
“Saving lives at sea is not a political fight”, but “a legal and moral obligation”, recalls the NGO.
In 2018, activists from the far-right group Génération Identitaire carried out a “commando” operation at the association’s headquarters. For this action, two of its members were sentenced to prison terms in October.
Contacted by AFP, the Marseille prosecutor’s office could not be reached immediately to indicate whether any legal action had already been taken.