Sea Rescue Captain - Carola Rackete
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2019
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The number of migrants making the sea crossing from North Africa to southern Europe has fallen dramatically in the last two years; tragically, the number of deaths hasn’t declined as fast. Humanitarian activists blame the anti-migration policies of EU member states. Stephen Sackur speaks to Carola Rackete, who defied the Italian authorities to land the rescue-ship Sea Watch 3 in Sicily with 50 migrants on board. To some, she’s a humanitarian hero; but will her actions merely encourage more people smuggling and more suffering?
Image: Carola Rackete (Credit: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:07.0 | Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:11.4 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:15.9 | My guest today is an activist on many fronts. Karula Rakita is a 31-year-old German woman who's been a polar |
| 0:24.0 | scientific researcher, a Greenpeace environmental activist, and earlier this year the captain of a |
| 0:30.7 | rescue ship, the Sea Watch 3, monitoring the waters of the Mediterranean on the lookout for migrants in danger. |
| 0:39.0 | Back in June, she rescued more than 50 migrants attempting to make the crossing from Libya to southern Italy. |
| 0:46.3 | After a prolonged standoff with the Italian authorities who have banned such rescue ships from their territorial waters, |
| 0:53.4 | she docked her vessel in Sicily and put her |
| 0:56.5 | migrant passengers ashore. She was promptly arrested and accused of various crimes, including the |
| 1:02.9 | endangerment of a police boat which she hit during the incident. She's since been released, |
| 1:08.5 | though some of the charges against her remain outstanding. |
| 1:11.9 | What is the best way of reducing the people smuggling and the suffering of desperate people |
| 1:17.7 | seeking a better life despite grave danger? |
| 1:22.2 | Well, Carula Riqueta joins me now. |
| 1:25.4 | Welcome to Hard Talk. |
| 1:27.0 | Thank you very much for inviting me. You have emerged from |
| 1:30.7 | an extraordinary experience earlier this summer, which saw you captaining a rescue vessel in the |
| 1:36.8 | Mediterranean, picking up almost 50 or so migrants, and then in detention for a while. How much of a toll has that experience taken on you? |
| 1:48.2 | Well, I've first been volunteering with this organization in 2016. |
| 1:53.4 | It's called Sea Watch. |
| 1:54.5 | Yes, Sea Watch. And when you talk to the refugees who come from Libya, a country at Civil War, and you understand what |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.