“Let’s look at it this way: if there is no ambulance, the sick person is not helped and maybe dies. And I have never seen an ambulance sent to the furthest hospital”.
Other than sea taxis. Richard Gatti, head of rescue operations on the Geo Barents of Doctors Without Borders, thus analyzes the new squeeze on NGOs launched by the Italian government. And it starts from the latest shocking image from Tunisia: the little body of a little girl dressed in pink on a beach in Tunisia. “They’ve found several bodies over the past few days. One of many shipwrecks with no witnesses. There was no one to save them.”
By sending humanitarian ships to the furthest ports, the Italian government is leaving the Mediterranean without help. Is this the aim of the decree?
“For years we have been trying to eliminate the NGOs, the only rescue ships in the Mediterranean. We continue with the criminalization of the civil fleet. They have tried to stop us in every way, even in a pandemic with quarantines only for NGOs or with inspections in port after the landings and specious administrative stops. Now other imaginative inventions are arriving. But the most serious thing is that this strategy exponentially increases the risk of death for thousands of people. And turns off the only eyes that see what is happening. For this reason we must raise our voices, depriving the Mediterranean of the rescue device means taking responsibility for increasing the percentage of deaths at sea and illegal pushbacks, allowing the Libyan coastguard to bring thousands of people back to the hellish detention centers”.
The ships will be able to make only one rescue and then they will have to head immediately towards the indicated port, which at the moment seems to be as far away as possible. In your seven years of experience, have you ever received ports so far away?
“Never, I’ve never gone higher than Taranto. Sending ships to central-northern Italy is an obvious attempt to limit relief supplies. If you assign a ship a port for which it takes four days to sail, it means only that you want to prevent the presence of ships where they are needed, at the cost of killing people”.
The economic question will also act as a deterrent to the action of the NGOs. How much do the costs to be incurred rise for a ship that is forced to travel long distances after each rescue?
“The bill is easily done. If you arrive in the closest ports of Sicily from the Sar area in about twenty hours, if it can take a day or a day and a half to get to Calabria, Puglia or Campania, it is clear that the Ocean Viking, forced to reach Ravenna, will take four days, quadrupling the expenses and the time needed to get back down. In addition to lengthening the suffering of the migrants forced to stay on board for more days”.
The government, however, observes that their stay on board is prolonged even when the ships stop to operate more rescue operations.
“It’s not the same thing. The government keeps saying that relief ships are a pull factor. But there’s ample evidence that’s not the case. Weather is the only pull factor. these days, many boats and dinghies leave and, therefore, it is easy to find yourself making more rescues in the space of a few hours or a few days”.
Multiple rescues that the immigration decree now prohibits. What will she do if that happens to her on her next mission?
“Obviously we will continue to follow the ethical and logical dictates and what we have always done. Saving human lives is our imperative and it is an obligation enshrined in all international conventions and laws”.
Do you think this decree is not in line with the conventions?
“This will be assessed by the lawyers of the NGOs. Certainly it will be necessary to study the rules in depth and evaluate whether they comply with international obligations. Ethically, it seems unacceptable to me. The only positive circumstance is that at least the people we save will be able to have a port of disembarkation”.