Episode 3 - The Escalating Crisis of Migration at Sea – what can we learn from the case of the Maersk Etienne?

According to the UN Refugee Agency, some 40,000 people have attempted to cross from North Africa to Europe in 2020 alone, the size of this humanitarian crisis is further compounded when we learn that 400 of these migrants are reported to have lost their lives when making this dangerous journey.

The legal complexities of migrant rescue involves the application of international conventions and multi-jurisdictional and agency issues, all of which does nothing to alleviate the ship master’s moral and legal obligation to respond to the plight of migrants when in distress at sea.

It’s in the DNA of those who work at sea, to save life at sea and in so doing, they often expose themselves, their vessels and their employers to safety, legal, security and commercial issues that can take time and money to resolve.

In this podcast we will look at the legal and operational complexities of seaborne migrant rescue and we will point our listeners in the right direction to access freely available information, advice and support when caught in the crosshairs of the perhaps inevitable political standoff which may ensue when seeking a safe place to disembark those that you have saved at sea.

Today Shoreline has the pleasure of speaking to two leading industry experts on this issue, namely;

David Hammond – David is the CEO and founder of the Human Rights at Sea Organisation, HRAS is a not for profit, advocacy charity, that strives to deliver social change through legal and policy development to ensure human rights apply equally to those at sea as they do to those on land, and;

Dr. Victoria Mitchell – Victoria is part of Control Risks’ dedicated maritime security team, providing global analytical coverage of maritime security issues. Victoria is an expert in the law of the sea and holds a PhD that addresses this and maritime security cooperation.