After three months of stoppage due to the health crisis, the Ocean Viking returned to the sea on Monday. The humanitarian ship of the SOS Mediterranean association will thus resume its rescues between Europe and Libya, which migrants continue to flee at the risk of their lives.
The ambulance boat, successor to the emblematic Aquarius, left around 8:30 am its home port, that of Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône). He has taken the direction of the central Mediterranean, the deadliest maritime migratory route in the world, where he expects to find many shipwrecked people whose even the coronavirus has not stopped the exodus.
"There is a drastic increase in departures" and "our role is to save lives in the central Mediterranean, where there is a void between Libya and European countries" who do not fulfill their rescue mission there, summarizes on board Nicholas Romaniuk who coordinates rescue operations at sea.
A protocol to prevent the spread of Covid-19 on board
The latest data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirms this observation. Between the beginning of January and the end of May, attempted crossings from Libya increased by 150%, compared to the same period last year, i.e. 311 people who sailed on makeshift boats against 3,712.
"For years, it has been said that they are leaving because there are NGOs" at sea, plague Nicholas Romaniuk, recalling that no more humanitarian boats were sailing in the area for several weeks during the pandemic. "We weren't there, and we can now categorically say that people are still crossing! "
The return of the Ocean Viking comes with an additional challenge: to prevent the coronavirus from spreading on the boat. For this, SOS Mediterranean has implemented a strict protocol, from quasi-surgical equipment for seafarers to a decontamination airlock on board, passing through isolation places in containers if necessary. Not to mention that the NGO had to put together a medical team at short notice, after its partner Médecins sans frontières (MSF) slammed the door in April.
"The resumption of European solidarity"
A clearing is however looming on the route of the red and white ship flying the Norwegian flag which is to arrive off Libyan waters on Thursday. If the Covid-19 disease had frozen rescues and, more broadly, the landings of migrants in Europe, the gradual reopening of European borders is accompanied by their resumption.
The Sea-Watch 3, from the German NGO Sea-Watch, and the Mare Jonio, from the Italian Mediterranea Saving Humans, are the first two boats to be returned to the area, respectively on June 8 and 10. Thirteen days later, Sea-Watch announced Sunday the transhipment of 211 shipwrecked people on a ferry in a Sicilian port where they will observe forty. The same day, Mare Jonio announced that it had landed, also in Sicily, 67 people rescued the day before.
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“It happened extremely quickly. These two events are extremely encouraging indicators. The disembarkation at Pozzallo (Mare Jonio) is perhaps the fastest ever seen. So this is good news, we are seeing the resumption of European solidarity, ”says Frédéric Penard, another manager of SOS Mediterranean. He immediately tempered: “So we come back to the situation prior to the Covid, where landings are decided on a case-by-case basis. It is not enough, because there is no automatic mechanism. "