Philanthropists saving lives to return to sea on 2 May

Search and rescue foundation Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) will be returning to the Mediterranean sea on 2 May to help save lives.

But this year, MOAS, a purpose-built search and rescue operation created with private funds to assist naval, commercial and private mariners in rescue at sea, will not be alone.

Sea Watch, created by German entrepreneur Harold Hoeppner and an assortment of friends from Brandenburg, will become the second search-and-rescue ship based in Malta when it launches in mid-May, The Guardian reported.

Sea Watch has purchased a GO-46 cutter vessel from the Netherlands funded entirely by the founders, but have an ongoing crowd-funding campaign to meet the substantial fuel and equipment costs. The boat set sail from Hamburg on Sunday and will reach Malta in four weeks.

“Our political motivations are so varied,” the group’s spokesman told The Guardian. “But these migrants are human beings, who we make no judgment about, where there is a state duty to assist, and that is perhaps not being adhered to.”

Once the vessel is in action, a crew of volunteers will conduct sight, radar and air-cam searches on 12-day missions north-west of the Libyan coast.

MOAS, on the other hand, will be sending its 40-metre boat M.Y. Phoenix together with an experienced crew of rescuers out to sea again, to coordinate and assist emergencies during the critical six-month peak period from May until October, depending on how much funds the foundation raises from public and private donors.

Founder Regina Catrambone recalled the ceremony held in Lampedusa last October to commemorate the hundreds of men, women and children who died in the October 2013 tragedies that inspired MOAS.
“In October 2014 we promised this would not happen again but now in 2015 we first hear that 29 people died of hypothermia and now it turns out almost 300 people drowned.”
She said that MOAS depended on the public to be able to go back out at sea and assist in maritime emergencies.
Founder Christopher Catrambone launched a special appeal to the maritime industry, who are required to respond to emergencies. Seafarers transiting the Mediterranean will be especially affected by the numbers of refugees crossing from Libya to Italy now that projects like the Italian mission Mare Nostrum were no longer in operation, he said.
He added that due to the sheer number of migrant boats and the lack of EU assets to intercept them, commercial vessels have become the first line of defence in rescues. Yet, cargo ships and private sailors are unprepared for this kind of overwhelming emergency situation.
“They do not have medical personnel so they are unfamiliar on how to take care of the people involved. And this is a big part of the process, not only rescuing them but taking care of them after they’ve been rescued which can be critical to their lives, as we’ve learned in Lampedusa.”

MOAS is headed by Brigadier Martin Xuereb, the former Commander of the Maltese armed forces.
“What is bringing these people to our shores is not the pull factors. It was never Mare Nostrum or MOAS, or any other search and rescue capability to assist people in distress. It is the push factors that are pushing more and more these people out of the country of origin,” Xuereb said.

MOAS successfully assisted 3,000 migrants during a 60-day mission in the summer of 2014.

www.moas.eu/donate to donate via credit card or bitcoin

BANK DETAILS

For Donations in EURO:
Beneficiary Name: Migrant Offshore Aid Station Foundation
SWIFT Code: LBMAMTMT
IBAN: MT15LBMA05000000000001180113787
Bank Address: 67 Republic St, Il-Belt Valletta, Malta, VLT 1117

For Donations in USD:
Beneficiary Name: Migrant Offshore Aid Station Foundation
SWIFT Code: LBMAMTMT
IBAN: MT20LBMA05000000000003440113787
Bank Address: 67 Republic St, Il-Belt Valletta, Malta, VLT 1117