The massive amount of money and global attention poured into the Baysian superyacht tragedy suggests a double standard for shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, NGOs that work to help asylum seekers said, citing the barriers they regularly face when attempting to save lives in the same waters.
Groups that spoke to the Guardian were quick to express regret and condolences after a luxury cruise ship was hit by a severe storm off the coast of Italy, killing seven people.
“For us, just one death in the Mediterranean is one too many, regardless of where they come from or how much money they make,” German humanitarian group Sea-Eye said in a statement to the Guardian.
But the reaction to Bayesian revealed a shocking contrast, said the NGO, which rescued 262 people in the Mediterranean during its most recent mission. “Sadly, media, society and politics change depending on who is drowning. We have noticed that coverage of the situation in the Mediterranean, the tragedies of recent months or our rescue operations has not been as widespread as the incident of the shipwreck in Sicily in recent days,” it said.
The Baysian sank off the coast of Porticello in about 50 metres of water, and when it emerged that British IT tycoon Mike Lynch was among those on board, media around the world stepped up coverage and followed every development.
Specialized cave divers were dispatched, Take turns They will be diving in 12-minute shifts and supported by a remotely operated underwater vehicle. The UK Maritime Accident Investigation Branch said on Wednesday it had sent four investigators to the scene.
While Beijian received help within minutes of notifying authorities, distress calls days later about a small boat carrying 43 people and sinking rapidly in the central Mediterranean were consistently ignored, another German NGO, Sea-Watch, said. On social mediaTwelve people jumped into the water near the boat, possibly to lighten the boat and protect the four children on board, and were struggling to stay afloat.
“For Italian and European authorities, there are two types of shipwrecks: those that are quickly rescued and those that are left to their fate,” Sea-Watch said.
It added that authorities had left the people on the boat for more than 24 hours before an NGO rescue vessel arrived on the scene and was able to rescue them “just in time”. “No rescue operation was carried out by the authorities”, Sea-Watch added. said“It's not a coincidence. It's the EU's double standards.”
The NGO posted side-by-side photos of the sunken ships on social media, with the first photo captioned: “The yacht Baysian was carrying white and wealthy people and was rescued by authorities within 20 minutes.”
A second video showed footage of the boat rapidly deflating, with the caption: “Rubber boat with 43 non-white, non-affluent people stranded for over 24 hours before being rescued by NGO.”
NGOs, whose life-saving efforts have sometimes faced lengthy legal battles and escalating threats and intimidation, including at gunpoint, described the Bayesian response as a sign of a viable response.
“There's nothing wrong with intervening to save the wealthy people and tourists on yachts. The problem is the lack of consistency in applying these rescue strategies to help migrants in need,” said Luca Cassarini, co-founder of the non-governmental organization Mediterranea Saving Humans.
CIE said those trying to save the lives of asylum seekers face a significantly different situation: “We are criminalised by European governments, such as Italy, and our rescue efforts are hindered by being posted to very distant ports after rescue or being detained at port.”
The NGOs' position appears to have been supported by Pope Francis, who on Wednesday strongly condemned the treatment of people trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe and said refusing to help boats was a “grave sin.”
After newsletter promotion
“There are people who systematically use all means to reject migrants,” the pope said at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, “and this act, carried out with conscience and responsibility, is a grave sin.”
A recent report calculated that Italy's routine allocation of distant ports to humanitarian rescue ships resulted in rescue ships wasting 374 days at sea last year, generating additional costs for rescue ships and preventing them from saving more lives.
Sea-Watch stressed that it always supports large-scale rescues aimed at saving lives at sea, “but we are outraged by political hypocrisy,” a spokesman said in a statement. Over 30,000 The number of people who have died in the Mediterranean over the past decade. “Every day we see the lack of proactive support for those fleeing to safety. Saving lives should not depend on the color of one's skin or the size of one's wallet.”
For Oscar Camps of the non-governmental organization Open Arms, the events in Sicily were reminiscent of the multi-million dollar rescue mission to free five men aboard the Titan submersible that had been submerged in the Titanic shipwreck.
“There just aren't the same resources put into searching for luxury ships and yachts,” he said. “It's like they're responding to lesser shipwrecks.”
He gave the example of recovering bodies: “The authorities don't want to recover the bodies because it's a lot of work – they have to identify them, take DNA samples, bury them,” he said. As a result, he said, many people who died in search of a better life end up being stranded in the water.
This disparity, and the administrative and political obstacles rescue ships often face, left him wrestling with a deep sense of discomfort. “I feel ashamed to belong to this society, and to be part of a European Union that has lost the principles and values on which it was founded,” he said. “This is not the kind of society I want to belong to.”
