Falmouth CG dealing with a potential disaster in the Med...

[BlueSkyNick]

....with no support from those best placed to assist.

Story HERE

Lets hope it gets sorted, regardless of the political and humanitarian issues which surround it.

 

[Sans Bateau]

Good grief, that is awful. Lets just hope relief reaches them before the worst happens.

 

[orizaba]

its an aweful situation and not that far from us,in fact just got back from town and the taxi driver was a lybian.
human traffickers should be hung up by thir balls,preferably from a bowsprit with a few sharks underneath them and handed a very blunt knife.
reading the article i,m surprised that the lybian authorities did not make an attempt to rescue them,i know malta is in a difficult position as they are being overun with refugee's as is italy, the problem as was said is down to jurisdiction,
a question posed not long ago was "what would you do " if you heard the mayday or came across such a thing, in these litigious/there not my problem days its a real dilemma.
i hope we are never put in that position but i fear that there is a fair chance

 

[Beadle]

They would appear to be much more prosperous than the average refugees, those sat phones are expensive.

Surprising that the crew took all their money but left them with such a valuable piece of kit.

 

[Capn Pugwash]

[ QUOTE ]
They would appear to be much more prosperous than the average refugees, those sat phones are expensive.

Surprising that the crew took all their money but left them with such a valuable piece of kit.

[/ QUOTE ]


Hmmm....that would appear strange wouldn't it? It's not as if the gits who dumped them would have politely enquired, "Please hand over any valuables you have" and then neglected to search them. Still, I agree about hanging the traffickers from the bowsprit with the exception of the blunt knife. Blunt and rusty knife yes!

 

[tazzle]

Human traffickers are scum, I quite agree. But I'm not sure about calling these people 'refugees'. Economic opportunists, or economic migrants perhaps; they're prepared to take risks with their lives to get into Europe and what they see as economic nirvana. An estimated 20% of them die at sea. As more conventional illegal entry routes are gradually being closed off, this seaborne traffic is set to continue.

A long and perilous journey for them, anyway. Once they make it to Spain or Italy many of them are still heading for Calais, where they can be seen in great numbers living rough on the old freight lines around the harbour.

 

[Superstrath]

Potentially tragic, and probably more common than we can guess.
Very similar to the Vietnamese Boat-People thing twenty-Five years ago. The consequences for any ship rescuing boat people were severe, and since the authorities in many far-eastern countries didn't want to know, some ships spent months stuck with scores or hundreds of refugees on board, unable to find a safe haven for their passengers. There were boat-people camps in the docks of Hong Kong and Kowloon, but some ships lay in the roads for months at a time until the local authorities could work out what to do with the people, many of whom were affluent Vietnamese who had given everything to "escape". Small numbers were brought to Britain, IIRC, and many towns acquired a Vietnamese family or two.
I don't know how it all ended up, but many were drowned or even shot by the smugglers once they had the money and valuables.
Any merchantman off Lybia might think twice about going to the rescue unless somewhere has agreed to take them immediately.

Why has the article been adorned with a picture of a coastguard station?

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Refugees, migrants, opportunists, chancers, call them what you like.

My original point is that Falmouth CG should not be managing an international issue which has political and humanitarian ramnifications.

With Italy and Malta declining to help, the poor chap who happens to be on watch ends up holding the baby - almost literally!

 

[ChrisE]

Successful outcome

I see from the papers today that they have been rescued, a freighter picked them up having been guided to the location by the CG.

 

[Barr Avel]

[ QUOTE ]
Refugees, migrants, opportunists, chancers, call them what you like.

My original point is that Falmouth CG should not be managing an international issue which has political and humanitarian ramnifications.

With Italy and Malta declining to help, the poor chap who happens to be on watch ends up holding the baby - almost literally!

[/ QUOTE ]

The way I read it, the Italian & Maltese have been helping the CG:
[ QUOTE ]

The Coastguard were able to get a location of the craft and were able to identify that the vessel is within Libyan search and rescue waters but have been working with both the Italian and Maltese authorities to get assistance to the craft.


[/ QUOTE ]

Marc.

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Re: Successful outcome

that's good news, then.

Although I buy the same paper as you, reading it is another matter. As you will have noticed, I have failed to make it to the same train this week. Inspecting the inside of my eyelids has therefore taken precedence over keeping up with the news !!

 

[ChrisE]

Re: Successful outcome

Ah, Nick, if you're going to live darn sarf, you're going to have to get up in the morning!

 

[landaftaf]

[ QUOTE ]
Lets hope it gets sorted, regardless of the political and humanitarian issues which surround it.

[/ QUOTE ]

isnt this a somewhat naive statement /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif