The consortium was built and developed in four phases (2015 → 2018 → 2020 → 2021) of a social movement in defense of migration as a right, that culminated in the formation of From the Sea to the City (FS2C) and then the International Alliance of Safe Harbours (IASH).

Phase 1, 2015 — The Charter of Palermo: mobility as a right, cities as political actors

In March 2015, Palermo’s mayor Leoluca Orlando and a wide constellation of activists and civil-society actors launched what became known as the Charter of Palermo.

Two aspects of the Charter matter most for understanding what came later:

  • A rights-based reframing: the Charter frames human mobility as an “inalienable” right and argues that the violence and suffering associated with migration are not “natural,” but produced by legal and political regimes; especially residence-permit systems and border enforcement.
  • A municipal counter-narrative: it positions a city as a legitimate site of political imagination and contestation against restrictive national/EU approaches. This “city voice” becomes a template: instead of treating migration only as a state-security domain, cities claim a role grounded in reception, rights, and belonging.

This creates an ideological seedbed for a broad advocacy alliance: freedom of movement + municipal agency + solidarity practices within civil society.

Phase 2, 2018 — The Palermo Charter Process: from manifesto to coordinated platforming around “open harbours”

In 2018 the Charter’s principles begin to be operationalized through coordinated civil-society and municipal action.

A key trigger is the June 2018 escalation of port closures and attacks on rescue operations, including the Aquarius episode, followed by a “Call for Safe and Open Harbours!” dated June 17, 2018.

The seed for a platform designed to coordinate action and messaging across borders had been planted for the development of a methodology we continue to adapt and strategize from:

  • From statement to process: the “Palermo Charter Process” becomes a practical container for sustained collaboration between sea-rescue NGOs, activist groups, and sympathetic municipalities in Europe.
  • A shared political frame: “From the Sea to the Cities” emerges as a unifying slogan linking the maritime frontier (where deaths and pushbacks occur) to cities willing to receive and contest national restrictions.
  • A coalition logic: it brought together actors across roles (e.g., Sea-Watch, Alarm Phone, Mediterranea, Seebrücke, Open Arms and others), alongside municipalities such as Palermo, Naples, Barcelona to press for decriminalising rescue and enabling “corridors of solidarity” through relocation and safe pathways.

Phase 3, 2020 — From the Sea to the City: scaling the coalition into an EU-facing campaign and conference process

From the Sea to the City was launched on World Refugee Day, June 20, 2020, as a campaign that connects sea-rescue, civil society, and municipal actors to demand a structural shift in EU migration policy.

2020 is the “scaling moment” of the described processes:

  • A clearer public brand and strategy: FS2C is presented as a consortium/campaign “to reimagine” Europe’s approach with cities and human rights at the center (not as marginal humanitarian exceptions).
  • A structured process of agenda-setting: during the pandemic, FS2C ran a series of online conferences/panels throughout 2020, framed around five demands and meant as the “first step” toward building a wider European network of cities/communities acting together.
  • A bridge from civil society to city diplomacy: FS2C deliberately positions itself as a catalyst: civil society mobilization working hand in hand with municipal actors and their legitimacy as state actors to empower and heighten EU-level advocacy.

While 2018 was a platforming moment, 2020 consolidated the platform into a recognizable European campaign, with conferences and publications meant to speak upward to EU institutions and horizontally across cities.

Phase 4, 2021 — International Alliance of Safe Harbours: formalizing the transnational municipal pillar

The founding of the International Alliance of Safe Harbours (IASH) happened on June 25–26, 2021, at the FS2C “city conference for a welcoming Europe,” organized in cooperation with the cities of Palermo and Potsdam. At that moment, a statement was signed that formalized the alliance’s foundation.

This phase matters because it formalizes something that had been implicit since 2015:

A visible public milestone: dozens of European cities signed the founding declaration in Palermo to establish IASH, articulating a shared vision of a welcoming Europe and calling for changes that enable relocation, reception capacity, and safe pathways.

Cities are not merely “implementation sites” of national states‘ political drifts but transnational political actors in asylum and migration governance. IASH frames itself as a network of cities advocating for a humane approach, observance of International Refugee and Maritime Law and Human Rights, as well as more legal routes.

FS2C & IASH as a dual structure: a development that brought a broad coalition of civil society actors, from activists to NGOs and researchers and a municipal alliance together, established as a dual structure carrying out projects and activities since 2021 that can be followed in our news section.