On Thursday 13 October, at the award ceremony for the European Citizens' Prize awarded to it by the European Parliament, the European Organisation for the Rescue of Life at Sea, SOS Méditerranée, lamented the lack of comprehensive policy response at European level.
Since the turn of 2016, 3600 people have drowned in the Mediterranean. "We don't talk about it enough in the media. We have to get over our fears. I can assure you that if we could take Mrs Merkel, Mr Hollande and Mr Schulz on board our boat for a week, European migration policies would be much more suitable than they are at the moment", said Klaus Vogel, the skipper of the Aquarius, the association's only boat.
SOS Méditerranée's ship carried out its largest rescue operation on 1 and 2 September, coming to the aid of 722 people crammed onto a small wooden boat and trying to reach the coast of Italy. Over the last eight months, the Aquarius alone has saved 4600 people and brought more than 8000 people on board. These migrants, mainly from Libya and sub-Saharan Africa, were then handed over to the Italian authorities.
It was precisely in order to mitigate this "lack of comprehensive policy response at European level" that SOS Méditerranée was set up in May 2015 by a group of citizens. The organisation aims to provide non-discriminatory assistance to any migrant in a situation of distress when crossing the Mediterranean.
SOS Méditerranée receives 98% of its funding from private donations, with the remaining 2% coming from public grants. The association's annual budget is around €3.8 million. Vogel explained that although that budget may seem high, it is actually not much considering that what with daily operations and the maintenance of the ship, each day costs the association around €11,000.
The organisation has a staff of 150. The team on board the Aquarius is made up of 10 members of the NGO and around 20 people from the Médecins sans frontières association. Additionally, the rescue operations are carried out in close collaboration with the Rome-based Italian coordination centre for rescues at sea. The organisation is thus creating its own network, so that it can work with various national authorities.
Although it is politically independent, the association enjoys the active support of a handful of members of the European Parliament, amongst them Arne Lietz (S&D, Germany), who EUROPE that although he was just one of five MEPs who actively support the project at the moment, he hopes that there will be 50 of them in a year's time. (Original version in French by Thomas Régnier)