After Italy’s refusal to let theOcean Viking in one of its ports, France announced, Thursday, November 10, to welcome the ship in the military port of Toulon, Friday. «A third “ of the 234 passengers on the boat chartered by the NGO SOS Méditerranée, rescued at sea off the coast of Libya between October 22 and 26, will be “relocated” in France according to Gérald Darmanin.
The Minister of the Interior, however, denounced the “incomprehensible choice” from Italy who “had to welcome these people”. International maritime law remains vague on the mechanism for receiving survivors of shipwrecks at sea by States.
Obligation to help people in distress
The right to rescue at sea is governed by several international legal texts. The 1974 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (Solas Convention) provides “ the general obligation of masters to come to the aid of persons in distress ».
This text, supplemented by the Hamburg Convention of the World Maritime Organization (IOM) of 1979, also states that ” the duty to assist applies regardless of the nationality or status of such persons or the circumstances in which they find themselves “. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea further obliges States to provide assistance to vessels in difficulty in their area of responsibility.
These texts do not specify in which port the disembarkation of the survivors must take place. The 1979 Convention only provides that States must establish coordination centers in a defined rescue zone (“SAR” zone), but does not determine which State must receive rescued persons and emergencies are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
“Distribution mechanism”
An IOM protocol adopted in 2004 imposes on States an obligation to cooperation and coordination to ensure that ship captains are authorized to disembark rescued persons in a ” safe place “. But interpretations differ, some States believe that the reception should be in the nearest port, others in one of the ports of the State responsible for the maritime rescue zone (SAR).
At European Union level, states have been trying to set up a “distribution mechanism” since 2018. This attempt follows the wandering of the ship Aquarius, which, in June of the same year, had been detained at sea for nine days with 630 migrants on board before being welcomed at the Spanish port of Valencia. The Italian Minister of the Interior at the time, Matteo Salvini refused to accept it. Upon disembarking, the passengers had been sent to several European countries, including France, which had received around fifty asylum seekers.
This distribution process was repeated several times in the months that followed and the “mechanism” was finally ratified in September 2019 in Valletta by France, Germany, Italy and Malta, then Portugal, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Romania, under a voluntary procedure organized by the European Asylum Support Office.
Develop a sustainable mechanism
Since June 2022, another relocation system has provided for a dozen member states, including France and Germany, to voluntarily welcome 8,000 migrants who have arrived in countries like Italy, close to the Libyan coast. However, only 164 migrants were relocated in 2022 from Italy to other member states, including 117 under the mechanism adopted in June.
The director general of the NGO SOS Méditerranée, Sophie Beau, reiterated on Thursday her call to develop a «sustainable offloading and distribution mechanism”, for migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, denouncing the “ordeal experienced by the survivors on board”.