you pay people traffickers you are part of the criminal enterprise and in teh money laundering chain.
When I was in Libya the economic terrorists used to paddle out in the summer hoping us on the support vessels would take them to malta.
We just drove around at night then went into Tripoli where i guess they cant recognise and dropped them off…
I recommend the Australian solution a la MV TAMPA. Look it up.
Lots and lots of gnashing of teeth, blubbering tears, accusations of heartless savagery from all the bleeding hearts world wide.
But it worked. And it’s still working.
The policy developed from there and remains. No person attempting illegal entry by boat to Australia will EVER be allowed to settle here. You sailed from a place where there was no persecution so you aren’t a refugee. We’ll pay your fare back from whatever island nation we temporarily land you at - Nauru and Manus Is. in PNG are both idyllic, tropical settings, but not ever Australia.
Then Prime Minister John Howard expressed the nation’s view perfectly, “We will decide who comes to our nation and the circumstances in which they come.”
Labor (left) in government later stupidly and culpably decided this was a harsh and uncompassionate disgrace, changed to their more compassionate let-them-come policy and soon the nations was awash in tens of thousands of so-called refugees accommodated in every state throughout the land. At least 1200 drowned at sea - killed by Labor’s policy, but deniable to a certain extent by being mostly invisible until TV cameras graphically recorded a boat load of Iranians and Iraqis crashing ashore in 2010 on the rocks of Christmas Island - no beaches - brutally killing 30 men, women and children before the eyes of citizens who could do little to help in the conditions.
Compassion kills. EU is first trying compassion. It can’t last. Send them back and help them there.
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Playing into the hands of greedy smugglers is a formula for an ongoing disaster. Sadly the political will and cooperation needed among the more prosperous European nations to put a stop to it seems too much to expect.
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aiding and abetting the money laundering people smugglers, they should charge the captains
That is completely up to the ferry passengers isn’t it?
Well there are no “Ferry” and the Maersk Master is no Ferry Skipper.
There are only some people that is desperate to get to Europe to get a better life.
Some of them are running away from warfare and despotic regimes, others from poverty and starvation.
Who are what is decided by UNHCR when they get on European soil (in this case) not by some keyboard heroes that post on Forums under cover of anonymity.
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For what it’s worth, Our fleet and a few others picked up Cubans during the mass exit. Most were not criminals, some were perhaps, but that didn’t stop us from helping. None threatened us, and were grateful we stopped.
Those who participate in human smuggling either for profit or altruistic reasons are the root of the problem. It can’t be solved at sea. The root cause is in their country of origin. I don’t see a solution any time soon.
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I don’t disagree Lee.
No it can not, but to leave already at sea in unseaworthy crafts to drown is not a solution.
To punish those who follow the Law of the Sea, written and unwritten, by refusing to allow them to call at nearest convenient Port (or any Port) is against the written law, that most countries have signed up to and most have ratified, is criminal.
The Tampa affair has been mentioned. That was maybe the start of refusing to comply with the Law of the Sea by a major country.
Now it appears to be the norm.
The solution may be to stop stirring up wars, rebellions and supporting dictators that suppress their own people.
On starvation and lack of opportunities in “3rd world” countries it may help if the rich world stopped blocking their markets to their products and dumping their surplus products on their markets. (Sometime heavily subsidized agricultural products that local producers cannot compete with)
Blaming everybody else is certainly not going to help anybody.
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Who’s blaming everybody else and who’s everybody else?
The fact that the solution is obvious doesn’t make it any closer to being resolved. Ranting about countries that are fed up with being unwitting tools of unscrupulous criminals to the detriment of their own population won’t solve it.
That is right, punishing mariners is a crime in itself. that is why Italy or Malta or wherever should immediately return the survivors to the port of origin or their home country. This entire “migrant” thing is like piracy, if it is fatal then that is the result of their choice to participate. If they survive, the effort and cost should be completely pointless because all it nets is a quick trip back to their home country. Rewarding the ferry operators and human traffickers is insanity.
How have the ferry operators been rewarded?
In case you missed it …
Looks like the art from Furry Freak Brothers. Where is the cat that shit in their shoes?
The British artist Banksy now has a vessel called the Louise Michel dedicated to picking up migrants at sea.
All I can think is it’s very much not in our interests as mariners to assume or encourage the attitude “anyone adrift at sea is likely pulling some scam” due to the fact that we are more likely than pretty much anyone else on earth to find ourselves adrift at sea!
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There were 219 migrants on board the ‘Louise Michel’, plus some thirty on a towed raft. The Italian Coast Guard removed some 40 vulnerable people. Later all others were transferred to ‘Sea Watch 4’, another, larger ‘Refugees Boat’.
The ‘Louise Michel’ was the former patrol boat ‘Suroit – DF42’ of the French Customs; used to inspect ships in the French territorial waters, with 8 crew on board; sold to the highest bidder.
How could they think ‘rescuing’ hundreds of peoples on deck of this low boat… and not becoming themselves a mayday case?
Here is the boat >>>
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Do you really need help telling the diffference?
dock the Captains pay or what?