report
Private sea rescuers are in a dilemma. Italy’s government has recently stipulated that rescue ships must return directly to port after a single mission. But what if another emergency call comes along?
Country in sight: Europe. It’s 6:30 a.m. on a December morning and the sea is finally calm. The silhouette of Taranto on the southern Italian coast appears peaceful.
A group of young men pose for a selfie. The first selfie that shows Europe. “It’s impossible to describe this feeling. It’s overwhelming,” says 19-year-old Zain from Syria. A moment of happiness for him, no matter what.
Five days earlier he set off from the Libyan coast with 32 other people, all of whom paid a lot of money for this trip. At around the same time, the sea rescue ship “Geo Barents” reached the zone off the coast where boats carrying migrants usually travel. Meanwhile, another NGO is cruising with its ship off the Tunisian coast.
Space for hundreds of people
For two years, Doctors Without Borders has chartered the Geo Barents specifically for such missions. The large ship, which can accommodate hundreds of people, was previously used for seismological research. Now on board: the crew and 23 employees of the aid organization.
Only five of them are part of the medical team. Others work in the rescue team, others are responsible for providing initial information to those rescued or for communication, linguistically or culturally.
The ship has had a long journey. During the previous rescue operation, the Italian authorities assigned them to the port of Ravenna, in the northern Adriatic.
24 hour security service
Crew members are now assigned to watch the bridge around the clock. A tiny boat appears about 30 nautical miles off the Libyan coast. The sea rescue workers’ first impression was that there could be six people on board.
The rescue begins, but triggers mixed feelings. Team manager Virginia Mielgo González explains that as of this year, Italian law requires them to head to a safe port immediately after a rescue mission, even though they could care for more people on board. “There may be more cases here today or tomorrow, so having to leave the area with only six people is very frustrating.”
Within minutes, two speedboats are on the water. When they arrive at the boat, they see that it is overcrowded with eleven people and in distress. Two babies are among those rescued. No life jackets, hardly any water, no food.
The migrants’ boat sinks shortly after the people on board the “Geo Barents” are safe.
The sea is monitored around the clock – as soon as a boat is spotted, action must be taken quickly. (broadcast image)
Exhausted and relieved
On board the “Geo Barents” there is an initial health check: At first glance, everyone seems healthy, but the injuries that the medical team regularly encounters on these missions often only become clear during discussions.
Psychiatrist Nyassa Navidzadeh has been traveling to trouble spots around the world for Doctors Without Borders for years. She is currently working for two months on board the “Geo Barents” and two months at home in Canada. “Here we treat people who have acute psychological stress simply because of their current journey by boat. But also because of the events they experienced in their country of origin or in Libya. I work here with people who are victims of torture , violence – sexual violence, physical violence and psychological violence.
Another boat is spotted
While the eleven rescued people from Eritrea are resting and the crew is waiting for a port to be assigned, another boat appears. This time there are 33 people, and again there are children – it is the boat that Zain, the young Syrian, also set off on. This rescue operation also goes quickly, luckily everyone survived. But they wouldn’t have gotten far by boat either.
Zain remembers the exact moment both engines failed. “We stopped, the waves were so violent that we almost capsized, they were between half a meter and a meter high. When the ship came, we were afraid that it would take us to Libya, where they would pick up, arrest and migrant migrants put in prison.”
The destination port: Taranto
The “Geo Barents” is now heading for Taranto in southern Italy. The journey will last two days and three nights. On the deck of the migrants, women and men separated, a certain activity arises between people sleeping, praying or quietly chatting.
The rescue team provides information in linguistically sorted groups about what awaits people in Italy and offers an initial lightning course in Italian. Some want to move on from Italy to Great Britain, Belgium or the Netherlands.
Zain, like the other Syrians on board, definitely wants to go to Germany. However, many people have no plan at all; their initial goal was to reach Europe. Away from what was before.
They survived the escape across the Mediterranean. Now those rescued on board the “Geo Barents” can slowly start to think about their future.
Traumatic experiences in Tunisia
Two cousins from Sudan, who are still minors, see no future in their war-torn country. They met again in Libya after 16-year-old Walid initially wanted to go to Europe from Tunisia.
But in Tunisia, immigrants from countries south of the Sahara have been discriminated against and even persecuted since a racist speech by the local president. According to his own account, Walid was one of the people who was abandoned in the desert in the summer. “The Tunisians took us to the Libyan desert,” he says, “we had to walk for two days to get to Libya, it was long. And we didn’t even have water.”
Emergency call during the return journey
On the return journey, the “Geo Barents” received an emergency call that 42 people could be in distress.
However, the ship would have to turn back in order to get a picture on site. The team tried several times to get permission to turn back from the Maltese and Italian authorities.
It doesn’t work. Nobody knows how many such emergency calls go unanswered and how many boats sink completely unnoticed.
Helper in a dilemma
Virginia Mielgo González sees her team in a quandary since this year: “We know that there may be other cases that need help and we have a big ship and could react. But as soon as we have made a rescue, we are forced to to leave the operational area.”
Why it is like that? The Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi referred to international conventions in the Italian Parliament in October: This “in no way prevented sea rescues, but only ensured that they take place in an orderly manner and in accordance with the international obligations that the Italian state must adhere to.”
There is great joy among the rescued migrants when they arrive in Taranto. Now they have to figure out where they can stay. (broadcast image)
Arrived in Europe – what now?
After a total of ten days at sea, the “Geo Barents” enters the port of Taranto. The German sea rescue ship “Sea Eye” is moored at another pier.
Hardly any of the men and women who take their first look at Europe early in the morning, tired but with a glint in their eyes, know how heatedly migration is currently being discussed in Europe. And hardly any of them knew “Doctors Without Borders” before.
They sing “Bella ciao” as a farewell for those who were rescued. For three days they accompanied people for whom these days were existentially between life and death.
And then these people leave again: get on a Red Cross bus, form a heart with their hands, wave gratefully and drive off into an uncertain future.