“We welcome the disembarkation to safety of 102 migrants” – Joint NGO statement

We welcome the solution that was agreed upon by the Maltese and Italian Governments which resulted in bringing 102 migrants on board MV Salamis to safety, avoiding a possible humanitarian crisis.

We also praise the Captain of MV Salamis for fulfilling his legal and moral obligation of saving the lives of persons seeking assistance at sea, in accordance with the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea and other legal instruments. We hope that following this incident, other private vessels are not discouraged from fulfilling their obligations of rescuing vessels in distress.

We remain concerned at the lengthy process involved in reaching a decision in this case. We would like to urge relevant stakeholders such as coastal states, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the International Maritime Organisation to work together to formulate concrete initiatives to prevent similar incidents from occurring and from processing them as swiftly and humanely as possible.

Download it here (.pdf).