New Delhi: Madleen, the Freedom Flotilla ship carrying humanitarian aid to war-torn Gaza, even before reaching the shores of the Palestinian enclave, has achieved what could not have been pre-planned—it has rescued and brought on board four Sudanese war refugees.
ThePrint earlier reported that climate activist Greta Thunberg and French MP Rima Hassan are among the 12 activists on board the Madleen, sailing towards Gaza to break the Israeli blockade of the strip. The aid ship is supposed to reach Gaza in less than two days now.
On the morning of 5 June, Freedom Flotilla ship took a two-hour detour towards Libya.
“We just received a distress call, most likely a boat leaving Libya. According to Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency), we are the closest. We are changing direction for two short hours to get there and be able to rescue the boat,” French MP Rima Hassan Thursday wrote on X.
Going off their route, the activists eventually spotted a stranded boat of migrants. As the Madleen surged towards it, the Sudanese refugees waved from their boat. However, the drama did not end there.
Scared of an approaching Italian Coast Guard ship, four of the Sudanese refugees jumped into the Mediterranean Sea and started swimming towards the Freedom Flotilla ship.
The Libyan Coast Guard were intervening, aiming to take the “exiled people back to Libya, which is illegal”, according to another X post of Rima Hassan. However, the activists brought the refugees on board before Libyan authorities could reach them.
“We were able to rescue them; they are with us on our boat,” Hassan posted on X, relaying the good news to those closely tracking the Freedom Flotilla ship. The French MP also wrote that after the Libyan authorities reached Madleen, they initially lied to the activists, identifying themselves as Egyptians, before them.
“Correction just communicated to us: this was an intervention by the Libyan authorities, not the Egyptian ones,” her post clarified.
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Sudan war
The European Union has, since 2017, been training and aiding the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept migrant boats and prevent crossings to Europe, a United Nations fact-finding team has found, The Reuters has reported. Refugees fleeing war-torn Sudan frequently are caught by Libyan authorities. Now, they make up nearly 73 percent of the refugee population in Libya, which has been in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising.
In Libya, the Sudanese reportedly are either detained indefinitely in overcrowded prisons run by militias or subjected to forced labour. They are sometimes sold to traffickers or deported back to Sudan, as well.
The war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by the country’s de facto ruler, and the Hemedti-led paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reportedly supports, has led to the displacement of millions and ethnic massacres, according to human rights bodies like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Human rights bodies have also emphasised the illegality of the Libyan Coast Guard taking Sudanese refugees hostage.
According to the four rescued Sudanese refugees, they “tried to enter Greece by sea but were [then] rejected by the Greek government”, said another Madleen activist, Yasemin Acar, in an X post. A 37-year-old Kurdish activist from Germany, Acar, is known for helping refugees integrate into German society.
Now, the activists are seeking the refugees’ safe passage to Greece while blaming the European Union for creating unsafe conditions for Sudanese refugees.
“Help us get the Greek Coast Guard to transfer the four survivors we rescued aboard the Freedom Flotilla to Greece,” Rima Hassan wrote on X. “People would rather throw themselves into the sea than be taken to Libya.”
Later, Hassan confirmed that Frontex has picked up the four refugees and is taking them to Greece. “They were able to sleep and eat, the doctor on board our boat also examined them, we hope that they will be able to submit their asylum application in Greece,” she wrote on X.
Frontex vient de passer récupérer les 4 personnes que nous avons secourues. https://t.co/EOAmifE8dZ pic.twitter.com/JhhciYUwlJ
— Rima Hassan (@RimaHas) June 5, 2025
Israel’s reaction
The rescue of migrants at sea is not the only story that the Madleen activists have shared. Madleen has already received drone alerts during the nights of Tuesday and Wednesday, causing panic among activists, who are urging people to keep an eye on Madleen.
Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, environmentalist and co-founder of Movimento Bem Viver, which aims to scale up sustainability projects, wrote on his Instagram page, “New drone threat against our humanitarian mission 57km from Greece on our way to Gaza to break the siege and create a people’s humanitarian sea corridor to stop starvation!”
“They think they can drive us to panic; they think they can deter us with their threats, but they can’t. Nothing will stop the Madleen with billions of people with their hearts and minds … We will keep on sailing until Palestine is free, and we are on our way!” he added.
On the other hand, Israel sounds ready to intercept Madleen.
Brigadier General Effie Defrin, an Israeli army spokesperson, has warned: “We are prepared to operate on all fronts, including in the maritime arena. We will act accordingly.” The Jerusalem Post has reported that Defence Minister Israel Katz would make final decisions on the interception.
Several representatives of the United Nations Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, however, have called for a safe passage for Madleen, saying, “The Freedom Flotilla has the right of free passage in international waters, and Israel must not interfere with its freedom of navigation, long recognised under international law … it is essential for Israel to adhere to international law, including recent orders from the International Court of Justice to ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian aid.”
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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