ACTIVISTS in cities across Europe and Africa held joint “commemoraction” demonstrations today in solidarity with the family and friends of 91 people who went missing in the central Mediterranean one year ago.

The last contact anybody had with the refugees was early in the morning on February 9 2020, when one of them contacted the emergency distress hotline run by the activist network Alarm Phone.

The activists immediately contacted the Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities and provided them with the refugees’ boat’s GPS position.

The Italian and Maltese coastguards did not co-ordinate a rescue. The Libyan authorities, however, told Alarm Phone they could not rescue the 91 that morning because “the detention centres are full.”

Ten months after writing an open letter to the above authorities, as well as the European Border & Coastguard Agency (Frontex), for any information to provide to the families, Alarm Phone was finally given a photo taken on the day in question by a Frontex plane of a deflated rubber boat near the 91’s last known position.

Today, relatives of the missing livestreamed a demonstration from al-Fasher, North Darfur in Sudan, where many of the 91 originally came from.

In the footage, dozens stand in a circle holding banners and placards bearing the names and photos of the missing.

“We are the families of the missing persons,” one of them reads. “We send this message to the whole world. We ask you to help find the missing from Libya to Europe.”

Socially distanced commemorative and protest actions took place in memory of the 91 today in Palermo, Latina, Marseille, Toulon, Tunis, Strasbourg, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Amsterdam, Zurich, Vienna and Brighton.

“In solidarity with the friends and families of all people who went missing or were killed by the violent European border regime, today we gather in several cities to demand answers,” Alarm Phone said today. 

“Together with them, we say their names out loud, to remind Europe that each black life matters, that we will not forget, and that we will keep fighting against this racist border regime.

“Today and every day we fight to hold Europe accountable for its racist violence and we fight for freedom of movement for all.”