MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th May, 2021) The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) global humanitarian organization on Thursday announced the relaunch of its search and rescue operation in the central Mediterranean after a one-year pause caused by the European Union's coronavirus-related policy.
"Our return to sea is the direct result of Europe's reckless policies of non-assistance at sea which are condemning people to die ... Over the years, European governments have progressively disengaged from proactive search and rescue in the central Mediterranean, have failed to assist people in danger and have deliberately hindered, if not criminalised, the much-needed work of search and rescue NGOs," Ellen van der Velden, MSF's operations manager for search and rescue, said as quoted in the press release.
According to the MSF, over 500 people have died attempting to cross the central Mediterranean in 2021, including 130 victims of the tragic shipwreck in April. Since launching search and rescue activities in the Mediterranean in 2015, MSF teams have participated in 682 search and rescue operations and provided assistance to over 81,000 people at sea.
In April 2020, some EU states called on NGOs to cease search and rescue activities over the COVID-19 pandemic, while Italy and Malta decided to close their ports to rescued people. MSF called these decisions "discriminatory and disproportionate" and halted its search and rescue activities at sea.
"We will not stay silent in the face of this manmade disaster. EU support to the business of suffering should stop immediately. European member states must ensure a dedicated proactive state-led search and rescue mechanism is urgently relaunched in the central Mediterranean," van der Velden added.
In August 2020, the MSF said it had entered a partnership with Germany's Sea Watch non-governmental organization to resume search and rescue operations for irregular migrants in the Mediterranean Sea amid the European Union's brutal push-back policies, amplified by COVID-19.
