MIGRANTS
Where is it appropriate to disembark those rescued?
• Provide the Rescue Coordination Centre responsible for the search-and-rescue region with the following specific information, if possible: – Details of the assisting superyacht, position of the superyacht, maximum speed, and next intended port of call; current safety and security status, and endurance with additional people on board. – Details of the rescued people, including: total number; name, gender, and age; apparent health and medical condition (including any special medical needs).
A captain cannot allow a superyacht to be used as floating accommodation and must disembark migrants at a place of safety.
Superyacht owners and operators need to be aware and prepare for migrants at sea.
While the obligation of seafarers to rescue those in peril is legally clear, what happens next is murkier. The Convention on Search and Rescue specifies that a rescue is not complete until the rescued person is delivered to a place of safety. That could be the nearest suitable port, the next regular port of call, the superyacht’s home port, a port in the rescued person’s own country or one of many other possibilities. A refugee or asylum seeker, however must not, under international law, be forcibly returned to a country where his or her life or freedomwould be endangered, or, by extension, to a country where he or she would not be protected against such return. Care should be taken when disembarking refugees, asylum-seekers and those in- dicating they fear persecution or ill treatment in a particular territory to ensure that the requirements of the 1951 Refugee Convention are met.
Obligations to rescue refugees and immigrants at sea
How this would work in practice
When assistance is requested to the rescue of people in distress at sea, the captain of the superyacht should: • Identify the superyacht’s equipment and life- saving appliances that may be appropriate for the rescue operation. • Determine if any special arrangements, additional equipment or assistance may be required for the rescue operation. • Implement any plans and procedures to safeguard the safety and security of the crew and the superyacht. • Inform the superyacht’s owner/operator and agent at the next intended port of call of the rescue operation.
The captain of a ship has a legal obligation to give assistance to those in distress at sea irrespective of the nationality or status of those in need, or the circumstances they are found in. The obligation goes further to say that you must, with speed, attempt to rescue the distressed person(s) providing this can be achieved without serious damage to the vessel, the crew or any passengers, or absent of ‘special circumstances’. The level of assistance will initially depend on the situation. If there is nobody in the water, then it may be reasonable to wait alongside until the coastguard arrives and provide food and water. However, if someone is in the water or the vessel is at risk of sinking; life rafts or launching tenders must be deployed and access to your superyacht needs to be allowed. Contracting states are obliged to provide assistance to captains and release them from their obligations with minimum further deviation from their journey.
– Actions completed or intended to be taken by the captain.
– The captain’s preferred arrangement and location for disembarking or transferring the rescued persons, mindful that rescued persons should not be disembarked or transferred to a place where their life or safety would be at risk. – Any help needed by the assisting superyacht due to limitations and characteristics of the superyacht’s equipment, available manpower, stocks of supplies (for example). – Any special factors such as safety of navigation, prevailing weather conditions, time-sensitive cargo.
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