An "emergency": after three months of stoppage linked to the health crisis, the ship Ocean Viking is preparing to resume Saturday its rescues of migrants in the Mediterranean, driven by "the scale of humanitarian needs", at a time when Europe “goes up the curtain” of reception.
For a month, between the beginning of May and the beginning of June, no more NGO boats were patrolling off Libya, making international organizations fear that the Central Mediterranean, the United Nations' deadliest maritime migratory route in the world, would become a blind spot with "invisible" shipwrecks.
“It is urgent to leave. "
The only two boats braving the coronavirus and closing the borders were then seized by the Italian coastguards, while Malta waited several weeks before authorizing some 400 shipwrecked people to land on its island.
"We know that we are going to find a tragic humanitarian situation and the coronavirus is not yet completely behind us, but there is an urgent need to leave to carry out our mission, given the scale of humanitarian needs", explains Sophie Beau, managing director of SOS Méditerranée, an association which charters the Ocean Viking, successor to the Aquarius.
Since June 8, two other ships have resumed their activities, first the Sea Watch 3, from a German NGO, then the Mare Jonio, from an Italian NGO.
About fourteen before departure
"One, two, three ships, it will not be enough to cover the area, it is necessary to put back in place a state fleet as in 2013/2014 with the Italian operation Mare Nostrum", claims the co-founder of the NGO, which established strict preventive measures against the Covid-19 aboard the Ocean Viking, currently in Marseille and of which the entire crew observes about fourteen before departure.
"We have clearly seen that despite the absence of humanitarian ships, the crossings continued," she adds. A documented shipwreck on the night of June 4-5 off the coast of Tunisia, which left at least 55 people dead just before the resumption of humanitarian operations, shed some light on these risks: "This is what we feared, sums up Sophie Beau. We know that when there is no ship, people risk their lives. "
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- Marseille
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