Sophie Beau, here in front of the Ocean Viking, is the co-founder of SOS Méditerranée -

CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP

  • The SOS Méditerranée association, famous for its

    Aquarius

    which saves migrants at sea, is celebrating its five years of existence.

  • This anniversary is taking place in a context that is still as tense in the Mediterranean, which saddens its co-founder Sophie Beau.

Five years ago, Sophie Beau and Klaus Vogel founded the European association SOS Méditerranée in order to come to the aid of migrants who died at sea. Five years later, the association, headquartered in Marseille, organized an evening solidarity and support this Saturday, in order to continue to carry out their missions.

Asked on the eve of a call from

Alan Kurd

, a humanitarian boat which decided to sail to Marseille with 125 migrants on board, after several days stranded in the Mediterranean, Sophie Beau is desperate to see the situation worsen and the corpses still many migrants who died at sea.

When you created the association five years ago, did you still think you were there, five years later?

No.

When we created SOS Méditerranée in 2015, it was a citizen mobilization to face the failure of States.

We said to ourselves that something had to be done, there was an urgent need to act, from a shared citizen indignation to say that at the gates of our common sea, the Mediterranean Sea, people are drowning .

We didn't have a deadline in mind at all, and it's hard to say that after five years and 31,799 people saved, the failure of the States has not stopped and the context has even deteriorated.

We knew it would be difficult, but the situation is even more critical today.

Five years later, in the Mediterranean, there is even more emptiness and chaos.

It is hopeless.

Why ?

Since April, five humanitarian ships have been stranded by the Italian authorities, including our own, the

Ocean Viking

, which has been stranded for two months.

Today, what is terrible is that we are prevented from doing our job as a rescuer.

We are criticized for not meeting safety standards that we passed without problem a few months ago.

We use administrative pretexts to prevent us from saving lives.

European ships have deserted the area so as not to be involved in a rescue.

The Italian coastguard has also transferred their responsibilities to the Libyan coastguard, which has not taken over at all.

On the contrary, there is a great porosity between them and human traffickers.

It is an endless spiral and the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean does not end.

People continue to cross, despite this context, and it is not known exactly how many die at sea. According to the International Organization for Migration, there have been a total of 604 deaths since the start of 2020, but it could be much more .

Also, we still need donations to charter our ships.

We need the support of citizens.

Do you understand that there is a political debate around your rescues?

This is not a political debate!

It is the application of the duty of assistance at sea. There is nothing political.

It is an issue politicized by states but there is no debate within the framework of the law.

When a person is in danger of death at sea, we have an obligation to provide assistance.

Not to do so would be criminal, however.

It comes under criminal law.

What is really shameful is to see this obligation being abused by European states against a background of distension on the subject of European migration policy.

And because of that, we sacrifice lives.

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  • Marseilles

  • Mediterranean

  • Aquarius

  • Migrants