Human rights groups call on Europe to save rescue ship Aquarius News
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Human rights groups call on Europe to save rescue ship Aquarius

Several human rights groups called [text] upon European leaders on Wednesday to offer registration to the rescue ship Aquarius. The human rights groups that signed the letter include Amnesty International, European Council on Refugees and Exiles, the Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists and International Federation for Human Rights [advocacy websites].

Aquarius is a rescue ship operated by SOS Mediterranee and Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF). It operates in the Mediterranean Sea and rescues those who become stranded attempting to cross the sea. It is the last nongovernmental ship that operates in the sea. If it does not receive a new registration, the ship will be forced to stop operations.

The ship’s registration was removed by Panamanian authorities due to pressure from the Italian government. The human rights groups have called the Aquarius necessary to provide “potentially life-saving assistance to vulnerable people at risk, including injured people, pregnant women, torture survivors, people traumatized by shipwrecks and unaccompanied minors.”

In total, an estimated 1,260 people have already died or gone missing off the coast of Libya. The groups call not registering Aquarius “tantamount to endorsing a deliberate strategy to obstruct legitimate humanitarian assistance to human beings at risk of drowning in international waters off Europe’s coasts.”

The Mediterranean Sea has been a dangerous path for refugees for many years. In October 2017 the UN Refugee Agency announced [JURIST report] 3,740 people died attempting to cross the sea so far that year. In August 2015 the International Organization for Migration announced [JURIST report] more than 2,000 lives were lost by that point in the year attempting to cross the sea. Italy has previously accused [JURIST report] SOS Mediterranee and other non-governmental organizations in April 2017 of colluding with Libya-based human smugglers. In September Italy’s cabinet approved [JURIST report] a bill that would make it easier for the country to deport migrants.

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