In this episode, we speak with Esmé, an activist and chef with the Global Sumud Flotilla.

She tells us about the activist group's humanitarian mission to Gaza, and what she saw during the Israeli navy's raid on the flotilla in international waters off Greece.

She also speaks on the kidnapping of her fellow activists and the beatings they were subjected on an Israeli ship.

---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast---

ko-fi.com/civilfleet

---Get in touch---

Twitter: @FleetCivil

Mastodon: @civilfleet@kolektiva.social

Bluesky: @thecivilfleet.bsky.social

Instagram: thecivilfleet

YouTube: youtube.com/@thecivilfleet

info@civilfleet.com

civilfleet.com

---Show notes---

For more on the Global Sumud Flotilla, see: globalsumudflotilla.org

You can track the progress of the GSF ships here: globalsumudflotilla.org/tracker

Follow GSF on social media:

Instagram: globalsumudflotilla

on Twitter: @gbsumudflotilla

Read about GSF on The Civil Fleet: https://thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/tag/Global-Sumud-Flotilla/

Check out episode 81 of The Civil Fleet Podcast with journalist Lorenzo D'Agostino to hear how last year's GSF mission ended when the crew were kidnapped by the IDF, taken to an Israeli prison and tortured.

For more The Civil Fleet Podcast episodes on Greece, see episodes 68, 60, 56, 53, 52, 50, 35, 34, 28, 26, 18, 9 and 4

For more on the Open Arms rescue ship, check out episodes 30 and 13

In this episode we speak with Iftach Cohen, co-founder of Front-LEX, a nonprofit legal organisation challenging EU border violence in court.

Iftach is going to tell us about the Alaa Hamoudi case, a Syrian man who was pushed back from Greece to Turkey by the Greek Coastguards in 2020, right under the eyes of the European Border and Coastguard agency, Frontex.

He tell us how Front-LEX won this case for Hamoudi at the EU's top court in January, and explains why this landmark legal victory should "benefit all future victims of Frontex's activities, and bring to an end its de facto immunity" in court.

Iftach will also tell us about a Frontex's report on the Greek government using Afghan paramilitaries to push people back to Turkey

---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast---

ko-fi.com/civilfleet

---Get in touch---

Twitter: @FleetCivil

Mastodon: @civilfleet@kolektiva.social

Bluesky: @thecivilfleet.bsky.social

Instagram: thecivilfleet

info@civilfleet.com

civilfleet.com

---Show notes---

For more on Front-Lex, see: front-lex.eu

And follow them on BlueSky: front_lex

Read Front-Lex's article on the Alaa Hamoudi case: https://front-lex.eu/the-court-of-justice-of-the-european-union-delivers-a-first-legal-victory-in-a-pushback-case-against-frontex-a-landmark-judgment-in-hamoudi-v-frontex/

For more on former Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri, and why he's being investigated for crimes against humanity, read this report in Le Monde: http://lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/03/25/why-former-frontex-chief-fabrice-leggeri-is-under-investigation-for-complicity-in-crimes-against-humanity_6751795_7.html

For more on Frontex, see episodes 76, 68, 54, 52, 50, 34, 31, 23, 15, 7 and 1 of The Civil Fleet Podcast.

For more on the Pylos shipwreck, see episodes 60 and 52 (the latter of which has Lighthouse Reports journalist Bashar Deeb)

Watch Bashar Deeb's report on Hamoudi's case, here: youtube.com/watch?v=Td5e9Y7U6ZI

Check out episodes 3, 4, 9, 16, 25, 26, 28, 35, 53, and 56 for more on Greece

For more on Refugees in Libya, see episodes: 79 and 29.

You can read Frontex's redacted report on the pushback case in Greece involving Afghan paramilitaries on The Civil Fleet's website, in the post about this article.

The quote attributed to the late Tony Benn is: "The way the government treats refugees is very instructive because it shows you how they would treat the rest of us if they thought they could get away with it."

Apparently, it was Scottish journalist Neal Ascherson who said it in 1996: "The way a state treats its aliens is the way it would treat its own subjects if it dared."

You can read that here: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/if-we-teach-children-morality-what-will-we-say-about-the-arms-trade-1325052.html

In this episode we speak with Ame, Alegro, Mirka and Ruben about No Name Kitchen's solidarity activism with people on the move in Bulgaria.

They tell us about the abuses people on the move face inside the country, the terrible conditions of its migrant detention centres, and how the border guards allowed three Egyptian boys to freeze to death in December 2024.

---Support The Civil Fleet Podcast---

ko-fi.com/civilfleet

---Get in touch---

Twitter: @FleetCivil

Mastodon: @civilfleet@kolektiva.social

Bluesky: @thecivilfleet.bsky.social

Instagram: thecivilfleet

info@civilfleet.com

civilfleet.com

---Show notes---

For more on No Name Kitchen, see their website here: nonamekitchen.org

Follow NNK on Instagram: @no_name_kitchen

And listen to episodes 63, 59, 58, 51, 41, and 6 of The Civil Fleet Podcast.

We briefly mention the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in this episode. For more on that, check out episode 6.

Read No Name Kitchen's report on the three Egyptian boys who froze to death at the Bulgarian border here: https://bloodyborders.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NNK_Frozen-Lives_25-01-20_2.pdf