Malta couple setting up private rescue service in Mediterranean | Reuters

Good samaritans launch mission to save migrants in the Mediterranean

Couple will fund search and rescue project, including using drones, with 65,000 migrants making perilous crossing this year

▻http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jul/16/couple-launch-mediterranean-migrant-search-project

Une nouvelle initiative pour sauver les migrants en Méditerranée

Un couple d’entrepreneurs installé à Malte va utiliser des drones pour repérer les migrants en difficulté et leur apporter de l’aide.

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#moas

Première opération privée d’aide aux migrants en Méditerranée

La première opération privée de recherche et de secours aux migrants en Méditerranée, financée par un couple italo-américain, à été lancée lundi avec un navire équipé de #drones pour repérer les embarcations en perdition.

Le bateau, un voilier de 40 pieds (12m), baptisé #Phoenix_I, a quitté Malte pour une première mission de 60 jours destinée à venir en aide à des personnes en détresse en mer.

http://r.llb.be/image/ee/53fc1f8035708a6d4d519dee.jpg

The millionaires who rescue people at sea

A philanthropist couple have launched what they say is the world’s first privately funded vessel to help migrants in trouble at sea. But can one ship really help the thousands of people who try to cross the Mediterranean each year?

▻http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28953237

MOAS SAVES MORE THAN 300 PEOPLE AT SEA IN COORDINATED RESCUES WITH ROME

▻http://www.moas.eu/files/MOAS%20Press%20Release%2031082014.pdf

Primi soccorsi privati in mare: in salvo circa 300 migranti

Si tratta del progetto Moas (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) finanziato da una famiglia di imprenditori residenti a Malta. Intercettate due imbarcazioni.

▻http://www.globalist.it/Detail_News_Display?ID=62022&typeb=0&Primi-soccorsi-privati-in-mare-in-sal

Reflections on the MOAS initiative

No one with some interest in migration, Search and Rescue, the Mediterranean and/or current international political issues has missed the Migrant Offshore Aid Station project that has been brewing for a while and recently launched out of Malta. A non-governmental initiative initially privately funded aiming at providing Search and Rescue capacity and aid to unsafe migrant boats en route from Northern Africa to a safe haven in Europe. Being a purely humanitarian mission, non discriminatory, supported by international law found in various maritime conventions as United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Convention for the Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS), the 1979 Convention on Search and Rescue (SAR Convention), etc. etc. the initiative is automatically endorsed from an international and legal perspective. A dedicated “ship of opportunity” is deliberately placed within the migratory routes. Providing aid to more than 1000 migrants a couple of weeks into the first watch, still counting, is proof enough that the concept works. Being tightly linked to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome, and used as an available asset, shows that the system as such has embraced the initiative. Critics will point fingers and accuse MOAS to become a tool for the people trafficking stakeholders and potentially become a floating “island” closer than normal destinations like for example Lampedusa. Actors like FRONTEX, the European border protection agency that very reluctantly has been drawn into a Search and Rescue role, will be somewhat ambivalent to this kind of humanitarian support. It will be interesting to see how they will handle the situation onwards. If this initiative finds financial support, gains followers within the SAR community, and grows within the Med. and beyond (similar problems are found in the Atlantic and around the Horn of Africa) it might become a game changer. Being run by entrepreneurs with media proficiency I’d say that the chance of success is good, with a proper game plan and a greater vision.

▻http://forsafewaters.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/reflections-on-the-moas-initiative

MOAS saves more migrants

Some 245 migrants, including 45 children, were today rescued by the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) after the station was directed to a wooden vessel by Italy’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre. The group consisted mainly of Syrians and Palestinians.

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MOAS assists Mare Nostrum with more migrant rescues

Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) has assisted Italy’s Mare Nostrum mission with the rescue of more than 1,500 migrants during its first two weeks of operation, all of whom were disembarked in Italy.

The 40-metre vessel being used by MOAS, Phoenix, will remain at sea for its first mission until September 14th and will then embark on its second mission on September 21st.

So far, MOAS helped in the rescue of six migrant boats totalling to some 1,500 migrants crossing from Libyan shores.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIDGXVNzUCQ

Maltese NGOs criticise EU for having ‘little appetite for saving migrants’ lives’

Human rights NGOs aditus Foundation and JRS compiled information about refugees and asylum seekers in Malta as part of a European project.

▻http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/43561/maltese_ngos_criticize_eu_for_having_little_appetite_to_save_migrants

C’est la fin de #Moas, il n’y a plus d’argent...
Moas, chiude missione di salvataggio migranti privata: “Non ci sono più soldi”

Dal 26 agosto la «#Migrant_offshore_aid_station» ha salvato 2.500 vite nel Mediterraneo. Con la contemporanea fine di Mare Nostrum, prevista per il 31 ottobre, «c’è il rischio che nessuno vada a salvare le persone in difficoltà», è l’allarme lanciato dal fondatore Christopher Catrambone

►http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2014/10/28/migranti-chiude-missione-salvataggio-privata-moas-non-ci-soldi/1174945