Moral Anger on the Mediterranean Sea:
I Have Become a Lot More Radical

This short essay investigates why private search and rescue (SAR) crew members who bear witness to state violence against refugees in the Mediterranean Sea experience feelings of deep anger and outrage, what Dubreuil has called “moral anger” (2014). It presents the experiences and perceptions of Rosa, a SAR crew member and former humanitarian worker who for many years have borne witness to violence against refugees in the context of migration. In the essay, Rosa highlights one episode of state violence against refugees as particularly violent, a boat with many refugee families on board, being chased and run over by Greek border police, which serves as the ethnographic grounding of the essay. Rosa’s story showcases how her outrage of injustice develops and how she manages it. Her story constitutes one example of the many SAR crew members who, just like Rosa, develop feelings of anger in the context of migration. The central argument of this essay is that SAR crew members’ anger stem from the persistent gap between humanitarian ideals, international law, and what they witness at the Mediterranean Sea, and that such anger creates a need for clear moral boundaries of right and wrong.