OCEAN VIKING. The ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée is still at sea with more than 200 migrants on board. The Ocean Viking could dock in Corsica this Thursday, November 10 but is still awaiting French authorization.
Will the Ocean Viking find a port? On board the ship, forced to stay at sea for twenty days with 234 migrants on deck, the situation “reaches a critical threshold” according to the press release from the humanitarian NGO SOS Méditerranée. It is becoming urgent for the flag to dock and the Corsican sides could be its next destination this Thursday, November 10, 2022. The president of the executive council of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni proposed in a tweet to welcome the Ocean Viking and the migrants, just like the city of Marseilles whose mayor Benoît Payan (PS) assured the “capacity” of the city to welcome the castaways at the microphone of France Blue Provence November 9. If the proposals are welcome for the association in charge of the flag, docking in French ports remains impossible as long as an authorization has not been issued by the State.
But at the top, the government says it regrets the situation in which the more than 200 refugees find themselves but returns the responsibility of welcoming them to Italy. “The European rule is that the boat must land in the nearest port, which is an Italian port, the Italians must therefore respect the European rule”, firmly reminded the Minister of Economy Bruno le Maire on Thursday. on France 2. The showdown between Paris and Rome is therefore not yet over and France persists in wanting to enforce the doctrine supposed to regulate immigration in Europe: “If we start to deviate from this rule, it will not there is no longer any solidarity possible, there is no longer any effective management of migratory flows. This does not exclude showing humanity […] but if we have defined rules, it is so that they are applied”, added the minister. A response which denounces the behavior of the Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni and which categorically refuses to make between the Ocean Viking in its harbors.
While the discussions drag on without knowing any progress, the director general of SOS Méditerranée Sophie Beau deplores to French Radio that the situation in the Viking Ocean “is the result of a critical and dramatic failure by all the Member States of the European Union and the associated States to facilitate the designation of a place of safety” for the reception of the refugees who “are physically and psychologically exhausted by more than two weeks stuck at sea”. She calls for an “immediate solution” in the face of what is turning into a “humanitarian emergency”.
Why is the Ocean Viking stuck at sea?
The Ocean Viking is one of four so-called “ambulance” boats from SOS Méditerranée used to collect more than 1,000 migrants shipwrecked at sea after fleeing Libya with makeshift boats. Located in international waters but closer to the Italian coasts, it was towards the country chaired by Giorgia Meloni that the association turned to find a port. Italy agreed to welcome the boats but went back on its word after having the first three ships dock, closing its ports to the arrival of the Ocean Viking. An attitude deemed “unacceptable” by the spokesperson for the French government Olivier Véran on November 9 at the microphone of France info according to which the ship has “a vocation to be received in Italy”.
The boat, which has 234 people on board in addition to the team, has been at sea for twenty days and has been stuck at sea for two weeks. Faced with Italy’s refusal to have it dock, the humanitarian association and the the Ocean Viking sent “a request for a place of safety to the French rescue coordination center” on November 8. This Thursday, the ship has approached the Corsican coast and is currently in French waters according to the geolocation site vesselfinder.
What does international law say?
During the crisis of the Aquarius ship which was stuck in Italian and Maltese waters in 2018, Niki Aloupi, professor at the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas and Hélène Raspail, lecturer at the University of Le Mans, had recalled the rules regarding the reception of survivors. Asked by Dalloz, they had underlined that “the place of disembarkation is unfortunately not identified by the various rules of international law”. International law provides for disembarkation in a “safe place” but does not provide further details. They also deplored a lack of clarity on this sensitive subject because “international law leaves States with the burden of this obligation”. Few changes have therefore been observed between 2018 and 2022, because humanitarian crises pass but are similar.