UN humanitarian agency calls for international protocol on refugees at sea

Prompted by an alarming rise in deaths of boat refugees, a group of maritime experts and the United Nations refugee agency have come up with a series of recommendations on how companies and States should handle people marooned at sea, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) announced today.

The recommendations, which came after separate recent incidents led to the loss of dozens of lives off the coast of Italy and Yemen, were the result of a two-day meeting in Athens, Greece, titled "Interception and Rescue-at-Sea in the Mediterranean."

The meeting brought together representatives from Mediterranean coastal States and international and governmental organizations to discuss how to deal with the growing problem. UNHCR will take the recommendations to a meeting with coastal state representatives in Madrid this October.

The number of people attempting to make perilous sea journeys, often organized by ruthless smuggling rings, is believed to have increased in recent years, said the agency.

The rising death toll associated with these movements has reached a "humanitarian crisis," with thousands of lives lost over the past decade on the Mediterranean alone, they added.

Many maritime companies do not know how to deal with boats they find filled with desperate people, or have been instructed by their owners not to get involved. States also do not follow an internationally recognized protocol for dealing with refugees once they have been rescued.

Not all people found at sea are migrants looking for a better world, said Vincent Cochetel, Deputy Director of UNHCR's Department of International Protection.

"There are [some] people leaving because they are victims of human rights violations or war," he said. "They need to be quickly disembarked after rescue and given access to the asylum procedure for a fair and efficient determination of their claims."

All the speakers at the meeting agreed on the need to uphold the integrity of the international maritime search and rescue regime, and to safeguard the humanitarian tradition of rescue at sea, said UNHCR.

Often States refuse to allow people rescued at sea to disembark at the nearest port of call. "Penalties imposed on ship masters add to their burden and can act as a disincentive to fulfil their humanitarian duty," added Mr. Cochetel.

In June, the Clementine Maersk rescued 27 people who had been drifting helplessly in the Mediterranean for more than a week, but had been ignored by several other boats beforehand.

Earlier this month, 75 Somalis died off the coast of Yemen after being told by smugglers to jump off the boat and swim to shore, said UNHCR in a separate statement this month.