Libyan crisis puts strain on marine shipping

Coast Guard organizations of Italy and Malta, along with merchant vessels, are bearing the brunt of rescue operations for migrants at sea.    Members of the shipping industry are alarmed by the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Sea where migrants fleeing North Africa in rickety vessels to escape mounting turmoil are at great risk of drowning.
   Small boats arranged by human smugglers are filled beyond capacity with desperate people from Libya, Eritrea and other countries seeking asylum in Europe. The boats are ill-equipped to make the 150-mile journey to Italy and many have capsized with deadly consequences, including one incident last week in which an estimated 800 people lost their lives. The Italian Coast Guard is trying to rescue as many people as it can, but doesn’t have the resources to reach all the boats in international waters.
   Much of the additional responsibility is falling on commercial vessel operators, who are picking up about 30 percent of the migrants at sea, according to experts. That is a problem for shipping companies because they must divert from planned routes to carry out rescues and deliver the migrants to a safe haven, which delays the delivery of their cargo and adds to the cost of the trip. Under the United Nations Law of the Sea, vessels are required to help those in distress.
   The European Community Shipowners’ Associations and the International Chamber of Shipping last week urged European Union member states to increase resources for search-and-rescue operations and welcomed the decision by ministers to intervene against smugglers, possibly by disabling their boats on the shore. Italy and Malta have borne the brunt of the rescue operations and care for refugees.
   In 2014, merchant vessels rescued 40,000 of the 200,000 people picked up at sea in the Mediterranean.
   “When called upon to assist, merchant ships will always come to the aid of anyone in distress at sea, but as the tragic events of the weekend seem to have shown, merchant ships are really not best equipped to deal with such large-scale operations involving hundreds of people,” ICS President Peter Hinchliffe said.
   Coast Guard vessels, for example, have small, motorized craft they can deploy to shuttle people to the main ship, making ship-to-ship transfers much safer for those involved.
   According to a recent report from Dryad Maritime, a U.K.-based maritime intelligence firm, “the political and military instability in Libya is intrinsically linked to difficult and dangerous conditions for trade and shipping.”
   The report estimates a 40-percent increase the number of people attempting to cross from North Africa to Europe compared with the same period last year and “shows no signs of abating.”