MSF has brought to sea a ship fully equipped and certified to perform search and rescue, while adhering to the current rules and regulations put in place by the relevant maritime authorities. While a Port State Control (PSC) is a legitimate maritime procedure developed to ensure the safety of navigation at sea, these inspections have been instrumentalised by state authorities to target NGO ships in a discriminatory way.  

The discriminatory use of the regulations, the way the inspections have been carried out, and the distorted interpretation of the legal provisions make us believe that the PSCs are used as a means to block NGOs from carrying out their life-saving work, and that it is thus politically motivated.

“While MSF fully supports all legitimate maritime procedures and controls that ensure the safety of navigation at sea, MSF challenges the legitimacy of the Geo Barents’ detention; in particular we dispute the Italian authorities’ statement regarding the ship’s unsuitability to carry out systematic search and rescue activities alleging that the ship had too many people on board,” says Frauke Ossig.

“International law does not stipulate specific international classification for humanitarian rescue ships. Such an interpretation of maritime law disregards the fact that rescue operations, as per the duty of shipmasters to provide assistance to people in distress at sea, are considered force majeure situations, as per Article IV of the SOLAS Convention and, thus, the number of people on board should not be taken into account for the purpose of ascertaining the compliance with other provisions of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.”

“While humanitarian rescue NGOs are filling the deadly void left by states’ disengagement from their responsibility to provide dedicated SAR capacity in the central Mediterranean, it is unacceptable that NGOs are prevented from saving lives”, says Ossig.

“The death toll is increasing by the day and lives continue to be needlessly lost in the Mediterranean. The administrative detention of the Geo Barents is costing lives and wasting crucial resources which would allow us to keep saving people in distress right now.”