Moas News

Some EU officials say NGOs inadvertently encourage people smuggling; NGOs say they are only trying to save lives. A "ferry service" that encourages people smugglers or an essential humanitarian rescue service that saves thousands of African migrants making a dangerous sea crossing to Europe? This debate among EU officials about the role of aid groups in the Mediterranean highlights their dilemma between the moral and legal obligation of helping those in need, and growing pressure from voters to keep them away. Escaping wars and poverty, more than 360,000 refugees and migrants made it to European shores across the Mediterranean last year. Most of them arrived on EU rescue vessels.

Humanitarian groups operating rescue ships off the coast of Libya picked up more than 700 migrants out of seven flimsy and overcrowded boats on Wednesday, Italy's coast guard said. The Phoenix rescue ship, operated by the Malta-based non-governmental organisation MOAS, rescued more than 300 people from three boats in international waters off the coast of the Libyan city of Sabratha. The Aquarius, operated by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors without Borders, went to the aid of four rubber boats, a coast guard spokesman said. Italy's coast guard coordinated the rescues. Migrants arriving in Italy on boats from North Africa are up some 30 percent so far this year, according to official data released last week.

Ships manned by humanitarian organisations, the Italian navy and the coast guard helped rescue more than 2,000 boat migrants on Thursday as calm seas returned to the Mediterranean prompting a surge in departures. The Topaz Responder, a ship run by the Malta-based humanitarian group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), said 23 different migrant boats had been spotted in the sea about 20 nautical miles from the Libyan port city of Sabratha. Rescue operations were ongoing, the Italian coast guard said. "The mass movement is probably the result of week-long, unfavourable weather conditions" that have come to an end, MOAS said on Twitter. The Topaz Responder picked up 382 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa from three different large rubber boats.

A smartphone application that allows users to scan the Mediterranean for boats in distress is being tested by a migrant rescue service, which hopes that crowdsourced information will help it save more people. The I SEA App, available on iTunes, divides a satellite image of the sea route migrants are taking into millions of small plots which are, in turn, assigned to registered users. Each user then monitors their plot through the app and can send an alert to the Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) and the authorities if they spot potential trouble.

Topaz Energy and Marine has emerged as an unlikely player in the effort to save refugee migrants risking their lives on the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece’s islands in order to reach Europe. While Topaz’s new emergency response and rescue vessel, the Topaz Responder, was primarily designed to provide safety support for offshore oil and gas producers, it is presently operating as a search and rescue vessel in the Aegean Sea. Contracted by not-for-profit organization Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), the Responder is playing a crucial role scouring the often treacherous waters of the relatively short (10 – 14 nautical miles) crossing, acting as MOAS’ ‘mothership’ in its Aegean Sea Mission.

Mediterranean Rescue Services are in urgent need of support because they are struggling to keep up with the replacement of equipment being used to rescue the increasing numbers of migrants in their waters and have contacted the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) for help. In response, the IMRF is relaunching its ‘Members Assisting Members’ webpage to help identify the need and enable connection to the 2,500 contacts on the database that may be able to help. The three…

Piracy and maritime crime is a complex matter, not one with easily identifiable or actionable answers. Dryad Maritime released its analysis of worldwide reported incidents of piracy and crime against mariners for Q1 2015, a report which includes but is not limited to traditional piracy and maritime crime, including also commentary on other threats and issues; from civil war and terrorism in Yemen and Libya to criminal gang enabled mass migration in the Mediterranean, a migration which resulted in an estimated 1,000 deaths during one particularly bad week in April 2015.

Almost 3,600 migrants have been rescued from overcrowded boats sailing from Africa to Europe over the past 48 hours, Italy said on Thursday, with sea conditions seen as perfect for attempting the crossing. As more than 600 migrants were brought ashore at the port of Catania in Sicily, rescuers plucked another 2,500 from rickety boats off the coast of Libya, the coast guard said. Most of those who arrived in Catania had been picked up by the British warship HMS Bulwark and were Somali and Nigerian, port officials said. With Libya engulfed in strife, people smugglers are increasingly free to pack migrants onto unsafe boats, and they are expected to push total arrivals in Italy for 2015 to 200,000, an increase of 30,000 on last year, according to an Interior Ministry projection.

A new sea rescue operation is to be launched in May to try to reduce the number of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers killed making the treacherous crossing from Africa to Europe, medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) and Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) said on Thursday. Last year was the deadliest on record when more than 3,400 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean, MSF said. This year, the death toll is expected to be even higher, MSF added. There is less help available for boats in distress since the Italian navy's search and rescue operation, Mare Nostrum, closed down in November last year because of a lack of funds.

North Vancouver, BC — Jonathan Whitworth, Seaspan CEO, announced today that it has signed agreements with both the Canadian Merchant Service Guild (the Guild) and International Longshore Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 400 to enter into binding arbitration/mediation. Following extensive discussions with the Honourable Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of the Status of Women, Seaspan and both unions have agreed to allow the Federal Government to appoint an arbitrator who will run the process and be responsible for setting the terms of reference. Once the arbitration is complete, the outcome is binding and cannot be challenged by Seaspan or its unions.

At the legislative hearing on the use of dispersants in the BP oil spill, Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Chairman Mikulski, Ranking Member Shelby and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill response. My testimony today will provide you with an overview of EPA’s role and activities in the affected Gulf Coast region following the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon mobile offshore drilling unit explosion and resulting oil spill as well as a summary of our primary environmental activities, including dispersant use, waste management, and beach cleanup.

A Memoranda of agreement (MOA) was signed on May 6 by the Chairman of INTERTANKO, Capt Graham Westgarth, and the President of the International Maritime Pilots' Association (IMPA) and of the American Pilots' Association (APA), Capt Michael Watson. These historic MOAs are aimed at improving cooperation and constructive dialogue between the associations and their members, with the ultimate objective of enhancing navigational safety and protecting the marine environment in pilotage waters. The associations recognize and respect the responsibilities of their respective members and the indispensible roles played by the pilot and ship’s officers in the safe, environmentally sound and efficient seaborne transportation of oil, gas and chemicals.

Safe Bulkers, Inc. (NYSE: SB), an international provider of marine drybulk transportation services, announced its unaudited financial results for the three and six months periods ended June 30, 2009. Net revenue for the second quarter of 2009 decreased by 14% to $44.3m from $51.4m during the same period in 2008. The company operated 13 vessels on average during the second quarter of 2009, earning a Time Charter Equivalent (TCE)(1) rate of $37,555, compared to 11 vessels and a TCE rate of $52,069 during the second quarter of 2008. The decrease in the TCE rate resulted mainly from lower average period time charter rates contracted in previous periods, and to a lesser extent from the lower prevailing spot market charter rates.