Gefira
Gefira is a Dutch far-right foundation that played a central role in the disinformation campaign against search and rescue NGOs from late 2016 onwards.
Two Gefira reports became key sources of the smear campaigns. The first claimed that a single tweet by a journalist on board a rescue vessel constituted proof of pre-arranged contact with smugglers – a claim immediately contradicted by the ship's captain. The second combined AIS vessel-tracking data with UNHCR arrival figures, presenting legal and coordinated rescue operations outside Libyan territorial waters as "evidence" of migrant smuggling. Both reports were amplified by far-right, Islamophobic and conspiracist websites including Infowars and Zerohedge, linking the alleged collusion to the white-nationalist "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory.
Frontex reports published at the same time echoed similar claims – among them the alleged "first documented case" of smugglers handing migrants directly onto an NGO vessel. The captain of the ship in question disputed this, stating that the boat appeared to be "engine fishers" – locals who salvage engines from stranded vessels after rescues.