From the Sea to the City is a consortium active in the migration domain. Its aim is to structurally impact the policy-making environment with and through a transnational alliance of local civil society organizations (CSOs) and municipal administrations. Upon arrival in the EU, people on the move must be offered humane life perspectives.

FSTC’s work builds upon the sea-rescue operations by addressing what happens afterwards on land. In response to national governments' restrictive migration policies and attempts to close ports to rescue ships, civil rescue and organizations active in supporting migrants articulated an advocacy strategy with cities across the EU that materialized in the formation of FS2C.

At a conference in Palermo in 2021, mayors from 34 cities who opposed their national states’ migration policies and were willing to act founded the International Alliance of Safe Harbours (IASH): a network of municipal governments claiming more decision-making power and demanding compliance with Human Rights and International Humanitarian and Maritime Law.

Since IASH's creation, its mission has been to advocate jointly for policy change at the EU level, coordinating the knowledge produced and shared by the CSOs on the ground together with well-networked local governments.

The meeting in Firenze was aimed at reuniting the FS2C member organizations and setting the goals for their common initiatives in 2024.

Considering that Mediterranea & The Alliance with Refugees in Libya are both members, we had the opportunity to discuss present and future initiatives with the members of Alarm Phone, Seebrücke, Inter Alia Greece, Moving Cities, Afghanistan Activists Collective.

Our focus in Firenze was introducing the launch of the ARiL Human Rights Defenders’ Campaign, which was to take place on the 26-27th of January, in Bologna, with the purpose of raising awareness and finding ways for the evacuation of the 221 Human Rights Defenders from Libya.

The final aim established by the Firenze meeting was channeling the efforts of all member organizations towards amplifying the voices of the refugees‘ and migrants’ movements, FS2C thus acknowledging its role as facilitator and support network to self-organized movements such as Refugees in Libya.

More about FS2C