Open Arms lessons

The tragedy of the Open Arms is one of the many that are happening in all the seas and oceans of the world. Spain is more directly reached by being a Spanish flag vessel and owned by a Spanish NGO. In accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of ​​1982 and with the Hague Convention of 1930, Article 18, competition on board the ship corresponds to Spain . But since it passed from international waters to the jurisdictional waters of Italy, with the permission of its authorities after a judicial resolution, a clear conflict of competences between both countries originates. The Italian Government has assisted sick immigrants who were landed, as well as 27 unaccompanied minors. This was followed by a request from the Italian Justice and the Head of Government who have complied with the maritime rescue regulations.

On the complaint of lawyers close to the NGO based in Barcelona that owns the Open Arms, the Agrigenta Prosecutor's Office has initiated an investigation. It is necessary to clarify that the coastal State in whose territorial waters a ship is located has to comply with the Execution of norms by the State of the Port, according to Art. 218, 1 of the 1958 UN Convention, signed by Italy and Spain in Balbys Bay, Jamaica It is true that Italy has turned this conflict of humanitarian and solidarity into a political issue that suits Minister Salvini in the face of the next elections.

During the more than 15 days that the ship remained in international waters, Salvini claimed that the ship is of Spanish flag and owned by a Spanish NGO - whose action deserves strong sanctions - and that, therefore, should go to some port of our country , which is open to immigration. For its part, the Spanish Government claimed that, according to the laws of the sea, a ship with rescued immigrants, in precarious health conditions, has the right to land them in the ports closest to their situation on the High Seas. And these were those of Italy and Malta . Both States, in the exercise of their sovereignty, have refused to admit to the Open Arms. Given the emergency situation that has been created, the captain and those responsible on board the NGO, owner of the ship, tried to support the Spanish embassy in Malta, even requesting diplomatic asylum. This was denied not only for formal or procedural reasons, but also because Art. 38 of the Asylum Law prohibits diplomatic protection in embassies, to avoid cases such as the recent Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The acting government president, Pedro Sánchez, aware that his position in Spain and Europe is not favorable, ended up agreeing on Sunday that the Open Arms traveled to a Spanish port. And it aims to promote a common immigration policy within the European Union. There is an initial agreement for the distribution of immigrants on board between six countries: Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Romania and Luxembourg, a solution that would serve to put an end to this particular drama. Although yesterday the terms of the distribution and the landing port were still unknown.

The UN Refugee Agency, Acnur, contacted the European governments for immediate disembarkation. It has not had any results, as it is known that the United Nations dependent agencies have little acceptance by the Member States, who know that their resolutions, agreements and requests have no executive force. It is also important to note that the 1958 Convention, of the UN, does not devote a chapter or epigraph to the issue of sea migration, or so-called humanitarian ships. Wrong denomination and difficult classification, since at sea every merchant or war ship has the obligation to be humanitarian and to pick up possible shipwrecked people, but not to go looking for them and negotiate their arrival in a European port with the immigration mafias . It is also curious to see how a patera with immigrants has never been directed to Gibraltar.

Trafficking in human beings is becoming better organized, even the large or smaller ships of NGOs in the High Seas are notified by mobile phones to come to the rescue. To understand this new situation, we must clarify that, because maritime legislation is outdated, the free sea has become an immense wild space, where the authority of the States does not arrive or does not want to arrive. This High Seas is being used by numerous NGOs, which claim that their ships are carrying out humanitarian work, as contemplated in the 1974 Convention on the Safety of Life at Sea, and that the States do not want to carry out such assistance. , when it should be precisely a cooperation between States that solves this complex problem of mass immigration to Europe. Naturally, once crammed on the deck of a ship called humanitarian, no one can deny the need to serve these people, displaced human beings from their villages, that all they are looking for is a better life.

Agreements such as those that the EU sealed with Turkey in the wake of the Syria crisis, or more recently Spain with Morocco and Senegal, are nothing more than occasional remedies because the problem can only be solved based on sound European-international cooperation.

It can be perceived that the sovereignty of States and their norms of domestic law prevail over many principles that we believed to be indisputable, such as solidarity and humanitarian aid. The loss of values ​​is manifest and globalization at sea presses strongly, as flags of convenience abound, the lack of regulation of work, salary and crew conditions, both on the largest cruise ships and on small ships Coastal If the great powers, such as the United States and Russia disregard, as they already did with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by not signing the most important parts of the text, we will continue with insecurity, lack of solidarity and non-compliance with Human Rights, building walls in front of the most disadvantaged populations.

Manuel Trigo Chacón , Doctor of Law, is the author of the book International Maritime Law (Ed. UNED).

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Spain
• Italy
• Open arms
• Europe
• Un
• European Union
• Pedro Sanchez
• Columnists

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