The New Year's night on the high seas could be uncomfortable for the 18 crew members and 17 refugees on the "Professor Albrecht Penck". "Wind force 7 is forecast, in gusts 8 to 9 - and sea state at three meters high," says Klaus Merkle, captain of the rescue ship of the Regensburg organization Sea-Eye. "It will not be pleasant."
How uncomfortable it will be decided by those responsible in Malta. The Sea Eye crew would like to spend the night a few miles off the coast of the island nation - where the wind is not quite as strong and the waves are not as high as on the open Mediterranean. However, according to Merkle, on Monday afternoon, according to the Maltese shipping authority, "Professor Albrecht Penck" prohibited driving closer than 25 nautical miles (46.3 kilometers) to the island.
Where his ship will spend the night and where he will steer it in the next few days, the captain does not know. But he suspects: there will be more conflicts. Since the "Professor Albrecht Penck" on Saturday morning has taken 16 men and a woman on board, which drove 25 nautical miles off the Libyan coast in a wooden boat, the German sea rescue service in constant clash with the authorities.
Do not hang around!
First, Libya's Coast Guard asked them to hand over the refugees. But the sea-eye people did not join in, because they had taken the rescued outside Libyan territorial waters and because they do not consider the land safe. Then the Libyan authorities ordered the crew to turn north, so move away from Libya.
When the "Professor Albrecht Penck" set course for Malta on Sunday, the local authorities did not just deny the Germans that they were calling at the ports and territorial waters. They also wrote, "Please also note that you are not allowed to loiter in Malta's search and rescue area." This prohibition violates international maritime law in the eyes of the Sea Eye people.
"It can not be that states now create their own rights," says Captain Merkle. Finally, the search and rescue areas (SAR zones), where coastal states take responsibility for marine rescue, often go far beyond national territorial waters. And beyond the territorial sea, ie in international waters, the state is not allowed to exercise any territorial sovereignty.
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The sea rescue of Sea-Eye: Lavieren in the Mediterranean SeaHere, the right to free navigation applies, as confirmed by an opinion of the Scientific Service of the Bundestag of August 2017. It states literally: "An impairment of this right, eg by regulation of the entry into the waters of the SAR zone, [... ...] constitutes a violation of the international law of the sea."
"We are faced with such unfulfillable demands because we expect that we will not comply with them," says Gorden Isler, the spokesman for Sea-Eye. "That's how we can always be described as uncooperative."
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 2,200 people drowned in the Mediterranean in 2018. Nevertheless, many governments do not like civilian distress rescuers. They argue that NGOs, through their missions, are making many refugees flee to the Mediterranean in the hope of being taken to Europe by the Sea Rescue Centers.
First ban, then request for help
Several times, states such as Italy or Malta have confiscated or imposed ships from NGOs. Other states deprived the ships of their flags. Only in recent weeks have many NGOs returned to the Mediterranean - including Sea-Eye with the "Professor Albrecht Penck", the first ship under the German flag.
But sometimes the coastal states also need the civilian helpers. On the night of Monday, a few hours after the ban, the Maltese asked the Sea-Eye crew for support: a dinghy full of people had been sighted in the Maltese SAR Zone. And the Germans should support the patrol of the Coast Guard in the search. The dinghy was finally found, all passengers were rescued.
Since then, "Professor Albrecht Penck" is sailing through Malta's SAR zone, but outside territorial waters. What happens with the 17 refugees on board is just as unclear as the fate of the 32 people, who picked up another civilian rescue ship before Christmas: the "Sea Watch 3" of the Berlin NGO Sea Watch, which also cruises in the Mediterranean Sea near Malta.
Several German cities and federal states, including Heidelberg, Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein, have agreed to rescue from distress. The federal government has not yet cleared the way for this. "We stand in coordination with our European partners," said the Foreign Office on request of SPIEGEL. "The reception of refugees is a question of common European responsibility."
According to SPIEGEL information, the Federal Government is in principle willing to accept part of the people on both ships. But other European countries should also participate according to their ideas.
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The EU Commission is responsible for coordinating the measures. How long this procedure lasts is written in the stars. The "Professor Albrecht Penck" and the "Sea Watch 3" will be wandering aimlessly over the Mediterranean for a while. And hope for better weather.