The NGO SOS Méditerranée, which has rescued nearly 1,000 migrants in distress at sea since the beginning of the year, called on Wednesday June 8 for the urgent adoption of a European solidarity mechanism to avoid the long blockage in edge of already traumatized people.
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"
We absolutely need a predictable and sustainable disembarkation mechanism for people rescued in the central Mediterranean
", pleaded the founder of SOS Méditerranée, Sophie Beau, aboard the Ocean Viking, the humanitarian ship chartered by the NGO in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
This appeal comes on the eve of a European Council of Ministers of the Interior and Justice scheduled for June 9 and 10 under the French Presidency of the European Union, which had set itself the task of advancing discussions on migration issues.
“A lot of mental suffering”
In May, on her last mission to the central Mediterranean, one of the deadliest migration routes in the world, the Ocean Viking rescued some 300 people, including a three-month-old baby and six pregnant women, but had to wait until ten days before being designated a safe port, in Sicily (Italy), to disembark these survivors.
Every year, thousands of people fleeing conflict or poverty try to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, whose coasts are some 300 kilometers from Italy.
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"
It is absolutely necessary that there be a mechanism of solidarity which is put in place, which is foreseeable, that is to say that we know in advance where people will be oriented, once they will be landed in a safe port
”, generally in Italy or Malta, countries on the front line, pleaded Sophie Beau in Marseille, where the headquarters of the NGO is based.
“
The Italian authorities need to be able to know how many people are going to be sent to such and such a country, and in advance, so that there are no case-by-case discussions for each rescue as is the case. case today
," with blockages stretching out to sea, she continued.
"
This blockage at sea is obviously a lot of psychological suffering for the people stranded on board, as illustrated by this person who jumped into the water during the last rotation
”, underlined Sophie Beau.
