Italian Bishops’ migrant rescue mission seeks to break ‘wall of silence’
By Joseph Tulloch – Aboard the Mare Jonio, Mediterranean Sea
On Friday afternoon, Mediterranea Saving Humans, an Italian civil society platform, launched a migrant search and rescue mission. It was accompanied, for the first time, by a support boat financed by the Italian Bishops’ Migrantes foundation.
But what is the purpose of the mission? What does it hope to achieve, and how?
Search and Rescue
Every year, explains Beppe Caccia, the head of the joint Mediterranea-Migrantes mission, hundreds of thousands of migrants attempt to reach Europe from North Africa by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.
They do so in extremely unsafe boats without adequate food, water, fuel, or supply of life-jackets.
The international waters of the Central Mediterranean are divided into ‘Search and Rescue Zones’ belonging to Italy, Malta, Libya and, recently, Tunisia.
According to international law, since most of these boats are considered “in distress”, it is the responsibility of the state in whose “SAR Zone” they are discovered to rescue the occupants and bring them to a safe port.
In practice, however, Caccia says – due mainly to political pressure to reduce immigration levels – this does not always happen. Many migrant boats are not assisted by any state, often with tragic consequences.
Action by NGOs
For this reason, a number of NGOs – including Mediterranea, Doctors Without Borders and Sea Watch – carry out their own search and rescue operations in the area.
They head south – Mediterranea sails from Trapani in western Sicily – on the lookout for migrant vessels in distress.
The most common way that Mediterranea comes to learn about a vessel in distress is through Alarm Phone, a 24-hour emergency hotline that the migrants are able to call via satellite phone to report their own position.
Sometimes government authorities or aeroplanes operated by NGOs spot the boats and report them to Mediterranea, and sometimes the crew observes the boat itself with binoculars.
Once a migrant boat in distress has been spotted, the process of transferring its occupants to Mediterannea’s ship the Mare Jonio begins.
Once aboard, the migrants are given food, water, and a change of clothes, and then brought to a port in Italy indicated by the government.
What makes this mission different is that the Mare Jonio is accompanied by a support vessel financed by the Italian Bishops’ Migrantes foundation.
It’s carrying extra volunteers and medical personnel, as well as an intercultural mediator – all resources that will make the process of welcoming the migrants onto the Mare Jonio easier.
The support boat is also carrying a small group of three journalists, with the aim of breaking what many activists describe as the “wall of silence” in the media regarding the ongoing death in the Mediterranean.
Instruments of God’s love
At a meeting on the support boat on Friday night, Fr Mattia organised a brief moment of prayer and reflection.
He noted that many of the migrants currently traversing the Mediterranean were undoubtedly praying, too - praying for survival and for safe arrival in Europe.
"God always loves through someone", said Fr. Mattia, quoting Pino Puglisi, the Sicilian priest murdered in 1993 for his criticism of the mafia. In this case, he said, God was showing his love for migrants - and providing an answer to their prayers - through the actions of Mediterranea.
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