Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has urged the European Union to create a search and rescue mechanism in the Mediterranean Sea and work out a "predictable" disembarkation mechanism as migrants die at sea at "alarming" rate, Michael Fark, the MSF head of mission for Libya and the Mediterranean, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st November, 2019) Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has urged the European Union to create a search and rescue mechanism in the Mediterranean Sea and work out a "predictable" disembarkation mechanism as migrants die at sea at "alarming" rate, Michael Fark, the MSF head of mission for Libya and the Mediterranean, told Sputnik."We are calling on Europe to urgently provide proactive and sufficient search and rescue capacity in the Mediterranean Sea. We have seen it can be done - for example with the Mare Nostrum which was a year-long naval and air operation commenced by the Italian government on October 18, 2013, and to some extent with Operation Sophia," Fark said.
According to Fark, "leaving people to drown at sea, trapping them in Libya, or criminalising humanitarian boats" cannot be an adequate response to the situation when migrants continue dying at sea at "alarming rates."
EU nations are, however, "deliberately neglecting their responsibilities to rescue at sea, instead choosing to provide political and material support to the Libyan coastguard" in capturing migrants and sending them back to the war-hit country, the MSF mission head said.
"We are asking that European governments live up to their principles by respecting and fulfilling their humanitarian and legal obligations, in both rescue operations and by finally implementing a predictable and humane disembarkation mechanism for everyone rescued at sea, that should share responsibility amongst all European States and ease the burden on coastal States," he added.
The EU has long been unsuccessfully struggling to work out a common policy toward asylum seekers. For years, the bloc has been in discord amid the attempts of multiple migrant rescue ships to enter its ports.
Some countries, such as Italy, have taken a tough stance on the new arrivals and demanded that other EU nations share their migrant burden. The country's previous government also criticized EU-backed rescue Operation Sophia for bringing tens of thousands of migrants to Italy. As a result, rescue ships deployed as part of the operation have been replaced with aircraft.
