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The fishing vessel with 12 migrants meets eight days on the high seas without the Government to resolve the crisis “I am Not afraid to die; I am afraid of Libya,”
The crew of the fishing boat Our Mother Loreto has decided to return home. After nine days navigating in a stalemate waiting for the Spanish Government to offer a solution for the 12 immigrants who gathered in front of the waters libyan, has announced that it will be heading to Santa Pola at 20 hours. Hour before had alerted of that or will be left to evacuate the immigrants to the Open Arms or turned away to Spain with them. “This is not an ultimatum, nor have a pulse. We made the decision with all the humility, after nine days aboard because the situation is unsustainable. Libya is not a safe option for them and for us”, reported by Pedro Hernandez, the managing director of Carbopesca, the association that owns the boat.
The Government, for its part, insists that the fisher must comply with the law and leaving the immigrant in the nearest port, informs Carlos E. Cué. In the press conference after the G-20, in Buenos Aires, was asked to Peter Sanchez for what hosted the Aquarius 630 refugees in June and now does not want to do with 12. “Because then there was not a safe harbor, and now, yes,” replied Sanchez pointing that immigrants should return to Libya, a country that has been brought to his Spanish ambassador, who lives in Tunisia, because of its instability. “All of us are subject to international law and community, which are clear. Note that in cases like this what you have to do is go to a nearby port and safe. I ask the ship’s master who respects the law,” he said in a tone hard. The fishing alicante, however, was, before heading to Spain, 81 miles Malta and 121 miles of Libya, but Malta has refused to allow them to disembark.
The crew was holding on to the only place that I was in the middle of the Mediterranean: NGOS rescue. The ship Open Arms, which was a port of Tunisia departed on Thursday at the meeting of the fisheries with the deterioration of the health status of those rescued. This Friday, one of them had to be evacuated by helicopter to Malta, after suffering blackouts and seizures, and the NGO team decided to request authorisation to the Centre for Sea Rescue of Madrid for the evacuation of the 11 immigrants who left in the boat. Next to the Open Arms and the fishing is also the Mare Jonio, of the Italian NGO Mediterranea. The boats now face a new timeline.
“The cook has orders to ration the food. Tonight [Friday] we have decided to stop machines not to spend more fuel because it only remains for us to navigate three or four days”, had the Friday night the pattern of the Paschal Avrupabet Durá. In accordance with the law of the sea, vessels have the obligation to aid mariners in distress, and Durá, as has been repeated on several occasions, I would do it all over again, despite the fact that the management of this crisis you have been disappointed. “I can not live thinking that a single person died in the sea it’s my fault, but after the penalty we are suffering for doing the right thing I wonder in what world we live in,” says the fisherman.
The return to Spain was not a scenario desirable for none of the crew. With good weather conditions it can take between four and six days to arrive to Santa Pola and no longer will give them time to get back to fish the area where they were. Their return home was not due until the 22nd of December, just in time for the Christmas campaign.
Libya, the nearest port, but not the secure port
The Spanish government has nine days trying to unblock the situation without success. From the first moment, the Vice-president of the Government placed Libya on the table. The official interpretation was that by being the nearest port, Libya was the safest harbor. This reading led to the mobilization of the Agency for Refugees United Nations (UNHCR) and a long list of organizations that refuse to Libya, a failed State dominated by hundreds of militias, and where the immigrants are enslaved and tortured, can be considered a safe harbor. The crew of the fishing boat does not want to go to a port in libya. “I am concerned about the safety of migrants if we landed there, but also ours”, maintains the pattern.
In Valencia, the president of the Generalitat, the socialist Ximo Puig, has asked the Spanish Government to act with the utmost diligence to give a solution to the fisheries of alicante and has criticized that the countries closest to the boat will remain as hostile and to offer them a safe harbor. “It is evident that the position of the Valencian Community is open, but it is also evident that you must comply with the national legislation”, informs Cristina Vazquez . Puig adds to the growing pressure that takes days applied from the Generalitat. The vice-president, Monica Oltra, was the first to offer the Executive of Pedro Sanchez of the port of valencia for a landing safe.
Since this summer, Malta and Italy blindaron its ports to the entry of vessels to rescue migrants aboard has been evidenced the lack of consensus in the European Union to establish a shared system of disembarkation and asylum. Each boat represents a different trading and dependent on the political climate of each country.
in mid-August, the Aquarius, with 142 rescued on board managed to disembark in Malta after high-level talks between the european partners, which agreed to a deal in solidarity with the immigrants from six countries. On that occasion, the negotiations were stalled four days. In the case of Our Mother Loreto, Italy and Malta have not yet been willing to budge.
