Sophie Beau says the situation on board the “Ocean Viking” is now “critical” and asks France to assign it a port to disembark the 234 migrants rescued 19 days ago in the Mediterranean.
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“It is not possible today to wait any longer in the face of the situation which has reached its limits on board” of the “Ocean Viking”, alert Wednesday, November 9 on franceinfo Sophie Beau, general manager and co-founder of SOS Méditerranée. For 19 days, 234 migrants have been stranded on board the humanitarian ship. The boat is “along the coasts of Sicily in international waters”, it has been heading since Tuesday towards international waters near Corsica, which says it is ready to welcome “if necessary” vessel.
Sophie Beau assures that her NGO has “made 41 requests for the designation of a safe port to the various maritime authorities”but she did not receive “no positive response”. The Director General of SOS Méditerranée therefore denounces the attitude of European States which have “flouted maritime law”citing “Italy and Malta”.
“Maritime law is extremely clear: when there is a shipwreck and rescues, the captains must provide assistance and then the obligation rests on the coastal States which have an obligation to open a port without any delay.”
Sophie Beau, CEO and co-founder of SOS Méditerranéeat franceinfo
The NGO regrets that Italy has not “never responded to [ses] disembarkation requests”. Faced with the urgency of the situation on board “which has reached a critical threshold”the ship therefore directly requested France on Thursday “to request an imminent disembarkation, as soon as possible”. “We absolutely need to disembark all these people as soon as possible, these survivors who went through terrible living conditions in the camps, they were detained in Libya, who then almost lost their lives at sea”, explains Sophie Beau. The director general of the NGO SOS Méditerranée is waiting “always a decision of a competent maritime authority”, or “a response from France”.
Sophie Beau cannot “not imagine” that France refuses to assign a port to it. She claims that France has “the obligation to respect maritime law”. “We will soon arrive near French waters, we will have no other choice but to disembark in France”she warns.