Shipping Industry Calls EU to Expand Rescue Efforts in the Med

The German Shipowners’ Association (VDR) has called upon the federal government and the EU heads of state and governments to massively expand rescue efforts in the Mediterranean without delay.

“In the past several months our member companies have rescued over 5,000 refugees in distress in the Mediterranean Sea. Merchant vessels are summoned by the Italian coast guard for rescue missions on a daily basis. In the process, our seafarers keep reaching their physical and mental limits. Refugees drown time and again before their eyes or die on board due to exposure. Despite all preparations, merchant vessels are not equipped for rescue and medical treatment of partly several hundreds of refugees,” Ralf Nagel, Chief Executive Officer of the VDR, said.

“In addition, we need medical assistance on board. The refugees include many sick and injured persons, but also women in an advanced state of pregnancy. Germany needs to make a substantial contribution and the other EU member states must make a concerted effort as well. After all, the number of refugee boats is expected to rise even further in the next few weeks. A passage on hopelessly overloaded, non-ocean-going boats represents a mortal hazard even in the spring,” he added.

The German Bundestag debated the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean Sea in a special session yesterday, with ministers urging for greater efficiency in tackling criminal bands of people smugglers and assuming responsibility to the migrants, including by distributing migrants more evenly across the 28-member EU.

The European and global shipping industries insist that the urgent priority is for EU Member States to immediately launch a proper EU Search and Rescue operation with sufficient resources to prevent the further loss of thousands more lives.

The shipping industry says that the decision taken by EU Foreign Ministers to bolster the FRONTEX-led Triton mission is a step in the right direction, but potentially falls short of the need for an operation with similar resources and geographical scope as the Italian Mare Nostrum operation which was suspended last year.

According to Patrick Verhoeven, Secretary General of the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA),  an EU operation similar to Mare Nostrum is needed, however “the critical thing is that Search and Rescue resources, rather than border control resources, are increased now, and that they are increased immediately – not later in the year or even in a few weeks’ time.”

“When we talk about increased Search and Rescue operations, we mean increasing the number of coastguard and other appropriate vessels that are immediately available to help, and expanding the geographical area of patrols to those areas where migrants are most likely to be found before they get into serious difficulty,” Peter Hinchliffe, Secretary General of the London-based International Chamber of Shipping commented.

An emergency EU Council Summit is scheduled to take place today to address the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.