ICS: EU Must Step Up and Counter Mediterranean Migration

The burden of responsibility placed on merchant ships and their crews to rescue migrants in distress in the Mediterranean has been further increased by the replacement of Italy’s humanitarian ”Mare Nostrum” operation with the EU funded ”Triton” operation, whose primary mandate is border protection and which operates with very limited resources, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) says.

As the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Sea is spiralling out of control, ICS says that EU Member States must act urgently to prevent the loss of thousands more lives, as hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees seek to escape to Europe in boats that are unfit for purpose and which are largely operated by people smugglers.

The message comes the same day as the media reported 10 migrants dying and almost 1,000 being rescued in seven separate missions launched in the Mediterranean in a 24-hour period.

Merchant ships alone rescued around 40,000 people during 2014, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). But this number is predicted to increase dramatically during 2015 if the political situation in Africa and the Middle East further deteriorates.

”The response to the crisis by the Italian Navy and Coast Guard continues to be incredibly impressive,” said ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe. ”But the situation is now so serious that all EU Member States need to become more engaged. The shipping industry’s concern is that, following the end of Mare Nostrum, other governments are increasingly relying on merchant ships to undertake more and more large-scale rescues.”

The international shipping industry fully accepts its legal obligations to come to the assistance of anyone in distress at sea. However, ”some ships have had to rescue as many as 500 people at a time, with serious implications for the welfare of ships’ crews given the health and security issues involved in dealing with such large numbers. This goes well beyond what should reasonably be expected of merchant seafarers,” said Hinchliffe.

According to UNHCR, at least 3,500 people lost their lives during 2014 while attempting to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa.

”The EU in particular needs to provide refugees and migrants with alternative means of finding safety without risking their lives by crossing the Mediterranean in boats that are unseaworthy and operated by unscrupulous criminals,” said Hinchliffe.

In the short term, however, ICS insists that EU Member States need to do far more to support the Italian Search and Rescue operation (as well as nations such as Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Turkey which are also on the front line of this problem) and the very large number of rescues being conducted by merchant ships; a situation which ICS says is becoming increasingly untenable.