because of the health crisis, the vessel of the association SOS Mediterranean had had to stay at the dock for 3 months. He left Marseille this morning (Monday).
The health crisis has not halted the departures of migrants. The Ocean Viking, the ship’s humanitarian association SOS Mediterranean, went into the sea Monday after a three-month shutdown because of the health crisis, to resume its rescues between Europe and Libya, as migrants continue to flee at the peril of their lives.
The boat-ambulance, the successor of the iconic Aquarius, has left at 8: 30 p.m. her home port, in Marseille, to head towards the central Mediterranean migration route, marine the deadliest in the world. He expects to find many of the shipwrecked persons for which the coronavirus has not slowed the exodus.
“there is a drastic increase of the departure” and “our role is to save lives in the central Mediterranean, where there is a gap between Libya and the european countries” who do not assume their rescue mission, down to edge Nicholas Romaniuk, which coordinates rescue operations at sea. The latest data from the office of the High commissioner united Nations for refugees (UNHCR) supports this finding. Between early January and late may, the attempts of crossings at the start of the Libya increased by 150%. 8 311 people took to the sea on makeshift vessels this year compared with 3712 the previous year.
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“For years, it has been said that they were leaving because there were NGOS” at sea, plague Nicholas Romaniuk, recalling that there are no more boat humanitarian was sailing in the area for several weeks during the pandemic. “It was not there, and we can now say categorically that people go through anyway!”
A new challenge with the virus
the return of The Ocean Viking is accompanied by an additional challenge: prevent the virus from spreading on the ship. For this, SOS Mediterranean has put in place a strict protocol, the equipment quasi-surgical for marine-rescuers to a decontamination aboard, passing by places of isolation in containers in case of need. Not to mention that the NGOS had to build up a medical team, after that its partner Médecins sans frontières (MSF) has slammed the door in April. “Problems that increase the complexity of our operations,” acknowledges Nicholas Romaniuk.
A breakthrough is in the offing, however, the vessel’s red and white flag Norwegian who is scheduled to arrive off libyan waters on Thursday. If the disease Covid-19 had frozen the rescues and, more broadly, of the landings of migrants in Europe, the progressive reopening of european borders with their recovery.
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The Sea-Watch 3, of the German NGO, Sea-Watch, and the Mare Jonio, of the Italian Mediterranea Saving Humans, are the first two boats to be returned to the area, respectively on 8 and 10 June. Thirteen days later, the Sea-Watch announced Sunday the transfer of 211 shipwrecked on a ferry in a port in sicily, where they will observe a quarantine. On the same day, the Mare Jonio has announced that it has landed, also in Sicily, 67 people rescued the previous day.
“It’s an emergency”
“It happened extremely quickly. These two events are indicators are extremely encouraging. The landing at Pozzallo (of the Mare Jonio), it is perhaps the fastest ever seen. So it is a good news, we see the restart of a european solidarity,” says Frédéric Penard, responsible for SOS Mediterranean. But he says immediately: “so we are back to the situation prior to the Covid, where the landings can be decided on a case-by-case basis. This is not enough, because there is no automatic mechanism”.
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Europe and the crisis of the migrants
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Since the signing of the pre-agreement of The Valetta, which had helped draft last September, the terms of such a mechanism which would make automatic the reception of migrants in several european countries, Italy and Malta, in the first line, have their eyes glued to the pact of migration, which should be unveiled in the coming days in Brussels. “This is an emergency. We hope that an effort will be made to a european system that protects, that integrates with and who is aware that these are not the rich countries which carry the weight of hosting refugees” in the world, ” said Paolo Artini, representative in France of the UNHCR. “This is all politics,” sweeps Nicholas Romaniuk. “During this time, people are dying in the Mediterranean, and this is not acceptable.”
