Search and rescue: Sea-Watch 4 allocated port of safety 11 days after first rescue

Since 15 August, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been working on board the search and rescue ship Sea-Watch 4, run by Sea-Watch.

On 1 September, 11 days after its first rescue, Sea-Watch 4 has been allocated a port of safety in Italy. The ship is now en route to Palermo to disembark 353 people.

MSF humanitarian affairs advisor, Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui explains.

"The situation at sea is dire. In the last 11 days, we have witnessed how European states are condemning people to drown and blocking action to save them. 

Nearly 400 people have died in the central Mediterranean Sea in 2020. It’s hard to understand how this can be allowed to happen. But it does.

Just two weeks ago, 45 people lost their lives in a shipwreck. Just a few days ago, people crowded onto a rubber dinghy saw four of their group drown. Nearly 400 people have been left stranded awaiting a port of safety, some for days, some for weeks.

Twenty-seven people were rescued by a commercial oil tanker, the Etienne,  on the orders of Malta. They have been left to languish for nearly four weeks.

This is the result of deliberate policies to not save lives. In recent months, despite receiving distress calls from rubber boats in their own search and rescue regions, Malta and Italy have been ignoring calls, and delaying rescues, in areas of the Mediterranean sea that fall under their responsibility. But, they are not the only EU states looking the other way.

The failure of states has forced non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to try to fill the gap, setting up search and rescue operations. But, thanks to the impounding of ships and unclear administrative blockages, hardly anyone can be at sea right now.

Currently, only Sea-Watch 4 and the Banksy-funded Louise Michel are the only search and rescue vessels active in the central Mediterranean.

Toying with people’s lives

Since returning to sea we have been consistently confronted by states, chiefly Malta and Italy, using dirty tactics, ignoring distress calls and passing the buck to others, such as commercial ships or NGO search and rescue ships.

We carried out our first rescue within hours of arriving in international waters, off the coast of Libya on 22 August. This was followed by two more rescues in the following days. Despite repeated requests for a place of safety, we were not offered one.

Many people are highly traumatised. People transferred from the Louise Michel have witnessed four people drowning.

Only one body was recovered; the others, like so many thousands before, were lost to the waves.

And then on top of this is the anguish and anxiety of not knowing what will happen next. These states are toying with people’s lives; it is cruel in the extreme.

Onboard medical care

Alongside seasickness and dehydration and scabies, we see chemical burns. This result from a toxic mix of petrol and seawater. One rescued person, a teenager, was so badly burnt that we had to arrange a medical evacuation.

Our teams are also treating broken limbs and trauma injuries consistent with reports of abuse and torture and ill-treatment in Libya.

We implement strict COVID-19 protocols, so we are paying particular attention to anyone with possible symptoms, such as a cough or high temperature. And ensuring they are isolated. Both the crew and rescued people are vigilantly hand washing and wearing face masks.

A recent major shipwreck off the Libyan coast took at least 45 lives. Our teams met some of the survivors after they were taken back to Libya. Their stories are harrowing.

We fear that the attention that has been paid to rescues by NGOs may provide a smokescreen. Why? So that people don’t ask questions about the nearly 8,000 people that have been intercepted and ‘pushed back’ to Libya by the EU-supported and trained Libyan Coast Guard since the beginning of the year.

State-led search and rescue is urgently needed

What is striking is how we once again witness a human-made disaster, a policy-induced one. European states must take responsibility. Italy and Malta are failing to meet legal obligations to rescue people or to allocate a port of safety and appropriate assistance.

But, let’s also be very clear, the responsibility for this does not rest upon these two countries alone. Every European state has a role to play; to offer concrete solutions to share the responsibility and establish an appropriate search and rescue mechanism at sea.

The moral and legal imperative to save lives must prevail. European states must deploy adequate search and rescue capacity at sea and respond to distress calls.

These cruel stand-offs at sea must end. No ifs, no buts. This is entirely possible with state-led search and rescue capacity and cooperation for a predictable and sustainable mechanism to disembark rescued people in the nearest place of safety.