The guide to Superyacht law - Fourth edition

• 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 –– 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, and –– Any special factors such as safety of navigation, prevailing weather conditions, time-sensitive cargo Where is it appropriate to disembark those rescued? While the obligation of seafarers to rescue those in peril is clear in legal documents, 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 indicating they fear persecution or ill-treatment in a particular territory to ensure that the requirements of the 1951 Refugee Convention are met. medical condition (including any special medical needs) –– Actions completed or intended to be taken by the captain

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