The SOS Mediterranee migrant charity told Sputnik on Thursday that a permanent EU-wide joint coordinated rescue system was needed to address the plight of migrants crossing the sea to get into Europe.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th September, 2018) The SOS Mediterranee migrant charity told Sputnik on Thursday that a permanent EU-wide joint coordinated rescue system was needed to address the plight of migrants crossing the sea to get into Europe.
SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) operate Aquarius, the last vessel still left rescuing migrants in in the central Mediterranean after an anti-migration backlash in European politics in the wake of the 2015 crisis. Earlier this week, France refused to let Aquarius dock in Marseille. It was decided on an ad-hoc basis that migrants will this time be taken to Malta and then redistributed to four European countries, while the destiny of any future rescue mission remains unclear.
The charity described to Sputnik the suffering endured by migrants while crossing the sea and stressed that each time Aquarius picked up migrants from sinking or unstable boats, it was unsure for how long it would be stranded at sea before being allowed to dock in an EU country.
PEOPLE ON BOARD THE SHIP SUFFERED TRAUMA
A SOS Mediterranee spokesman stressed that migrants on board of Aquarius come from war zones and are often traumatized by the conditions they used to live in as well as the life-threatening crossing of the sea.
"There are a lot of Libyans who fled their country, a lot of Syrians. Many of them have been staying in arbitrary detention in the camps, where people are trapped and go through violence and torture, forced labor. One minor told us: 'They telephoned my mom, called me and stabbed me so that she could hear me crying and send money to stop it,'" the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson voiced concern that rescue crews often come when a migrant boat is sinking or is half-sunk, with the majority of people not being able to swim.
"Recently we had a critical rescue [operation]. We arrived at night, there were some 50 people in the water, people who cannot swim ... The weather was bad and we only had few minutes to save them," the spokesperson underlined.
According to the spokesperson, countries closest to the location of a migrant boat should open their ports and allow the vessel to dock.
"They [migrants] have been through a lot of things and they must be allowed to come to a place where their human rights would be respected in accordance with the international sea convention, which says that people saved at sea must be transferred to the closest safe port as soon as possible," the spokesperson pointed out.
NO GUARANTEES EU COUNTRIES TO ACCEPT MIGRANTS QUICKLY
The charity spokesperson pointed out that once on a new rescue operation, Aquarius ship crew does not know for how long it will have to stay in the international waters being unable to dock as there is no agreement between the EU countries making them take responsibility for migrants.
"Of course this situation is not normal. That's why we are calling for a sustainable solution, because now we are obliged to carry out every rescue operation on an ad hoc basis ... Every time we don't know how much time we will spend in the sea, we don't know whether we will be able to change our equipment," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson slammed the EU deal outsourcing its external border control to Libyan coastguard, calling it "a completely inhuman solution."
URGENT NEED FOR JOINT EUROPEAN SOLUTION
The charity recalled that for many years Italy, being the closest safe port for the Central Mediterranean, opened its doors for migrants and processed their asylum claims as required under the Dublin rules, adding that "the European states have turned a deaf ear to the repeated calls of Italy to find a common solution."
"We call for a joint coordinated decision of the European states to first of all resolve this humanitarian crisis at the sea. [Europe] can't stop talking about the migration crisis but there is no migration crisis, there has been much less arrivals in the past years than before ... But there is a humanitarian crisis at the sea where people are dying every day. This is the real crisis. Our wish is a joint coordinated rescue system in the Central Mediterranean, managed by Europe," the spokesperson noted.
EU GIVING ITS FLAG TO AQUARIUS COULD BE GOOD SYMBOL
On Sunday, Panama decided to withdraw registration of Aquarius migrant rescue ship. SOS Mediterranee said that the move was a clear "political manipulation" and regretted that the EU is not interested in resuming rescue operations like Mare Nostrum - an operation of the Italian marine forces to save migrants at sea, conducted in 2013-2014.
"We know for sure that this decision has been taken because of political reasons; it's the second time in three months when they revoke our registration. It is not normal at all. It has never happened in the contemporary maritime history at the international level. So this is clearly a political manipulation, which Panama confirmed to us," the spokesperson said.
The SOS Mediterranee representative added that the charity would prefer to get European registration and sail under a European flag.
"Now we need an urgent solution, we need a country to offer us its registration so that we could rapidly return to the sea," the charity stressed.
Before sailing under the flag of convenience Panama, Aquarius sailed under Gibraltar's flag, but Gibraltar issued a notice of removal in August, stating that it as registered as a survey vessel while being used as a rescue vessel. When Panama withdraw its registration, it said that the vessel violated international law by refusing to return migrants to the shore they came from, which is mainly Libya.
