Photo: Maersk Tankers
In early August, the Maltese government asked the tanker, Maersk Etienne, to help a nearby boat in distress. The crew of the tanker found an overcrowded, wooden fishing boat carrying 27 African migrants — including a pregnant woman and a child. They rescued the migrants and proceeded to Malta. After the Maltese authorities requested that the tanker rescue the migrants, the ship was refused permission to dock. Now, 36 days later, the Maersk Etienne sits at anchor off Malta with its 27 passengers, in increasingly dire conditions.
Over the weekend, three of the desperate migrants jumped overboard. They were recovered by the ship’s crew and are being cared for on the ship.
The International Chamber of Shipping has joined two UN organizations in calling for the safe disembarkation.
“The conditions are rapidly deteriorating onboard, and we can no longer sit by while governments ignore the plight of these people,” said Guy Platten, ICS’ secretary-general. “This is not the first time that this has happened, and we need governments to live up to their obligations. Time is running out and the responsibility for these people’s safety and security rests squarely with government ministers. This is not COVID related; this is a humanitarian issue pure and simple.”
UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), its migration agency, have both joined the call for a solution to the situation aboard Maersk Etienne.
“The absence of a clear, safe, and predictable disembarkation mechanism for people rescued in the Mediterranean, continues to pose avoidable risk to life,” said IOM Director General António Vitorino. “IOM and UNHCR have long called on states to move away from the current ad hoc approach and establish a scheme whereby coastal states take equal responsibility in providing a port of safety, followed by a show of solidarity from other EU member states.”
International maritime law dictates that vessels near a boat in distress have an obligation to respond, and merchant vessels in the Mediterranean have long been involved in such rescues. Typically, the rescued migrants are then taken to the nearest safe port.
The New York Times reports that Maersk has been in contact not only with the authorities in Malta, but with those in nearby Tunisia and in Denmark, where the tanker is registered. None have offered a way to get the migrants ashore.
The ship’s master, Capt. Volodymyr Yeroshkin, describes an increasingly challenging situation on board, both for the crew and for the survivors.
1 rescue of 27 people and 31 days later, #Malta is still not allowing the @MaerskTankers #Etienne enter port. Now, the captain is speaking out.@MaltaGov, what crime are you going to commit next? pic.twitter.com/6Myw6I7hka
— Sea-Watch International (@seawatch_intl) September 5, 2020
We’re creating broken geography at scale and hence creating refugees.
Systems thinking can’t be avoided here. The ultimate remedy lies in slowing and then zeroing out the rate at which we’re manufacturing uninhabitable conditions.
Best figure it out– this is only the trickle before the flood.
Meanwhile captains and crews continue do the only right thing.
Why doesn’t the Captain of the ship take it to a country that will take the refugees, maybe Marseille in France? The French will then let them pass through France to the UK like all their other refugees.
Many years ago I was sailing a yacht eastwards across the Mediterranean from southern Spain, helping a friend. The skipper of a cargo ship called us on the radio and suggested it would be wise for us to turn south for about ten miles as there was a boat load of refugees directly in our path and it was possible that they would sink their boat so we would be forced to take them on board. We took his advice and presumably the refugees carried on to Spain.
Seems like the owners of the ship should be trying to reconcile this. The ship has a cargo. That cargo needs to be delivered. Put the refugees to work. Give them honest pay. At least get the boat moving again.
It is like trucking. One doesnt buy a class 8 truck to park it. It makes money when it is moving.