Whither Noah’s Ark?

The recent migrant boat disaster off Greece involving hundreds of lives onboard begs to awaken human conscience, if ever there was one. If we can’t build a Noah’s Ark to save illegal migrants at sea, let us at least build a detention centre in every maritime nation to rescue, restrain and hold such 'heinous criminals' until deported.

Centuries ago Noah single-handedly built an ark and saved humanity. Today its descendants still struggle to find a literally water-tight solution that focuses on the last mile segment of an international humanitarian crisis of deadly proportions – deaths at sea in derelict unsafe vessels.

Sure, it’s the migrants' fault. These 'heinous criminals' shouldn’t have left their ‘home-lands’ to illegally enter into another country and 'steal' their resources. Yes, they should have refused passage in a derelict unsafe creaking rust-tub crammed beyond its capacity. Alas, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride! No one leaves home unless the risk of dying during the journey appears less daunting than the risk of continuing to live on back home.

Also, let us not enter into the great debate regarding the state’s responsibility. Yes, a state of origin should be able to provide well for its citizens. Yes, a transiting state should crackdown on the human-smuggling international networks that exploit human insecurities. Yes, a maritime state should exercise effective port state control to deny operation of derelict unsafe rust-tub-like small boats from its shores. Yes, an adjoining maritime state should effectively patrol its waters to disrupt such human-smuggling attempts through seas of its jurisdiction. Yes, a destination state should build an effective programme to deny entry of such illegal immigrants in hordes lest they become a burden on its population. A state should do all this, and more. More so the states that are on the originating end of the problem bear greatest responsibility for preventing such migrants from leaving.

But what about the poor souls who have been eventually trapped in this vicious circle facing a certain death at sea? It’s not a question of emotional blackmail of states that can rescue migrants at sea but a question of coordinating emergency responses to save lives. It is more of a case of a human’s right to live and a human’s responsibility to save lives.

Saving lives at sea from shipwrecks has been an ancient concern. Noah did it then by building an ark. And lately when Titanic sank in its full doom in 1912, the world scrambled to put together an International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea also short-titled SOLAS convention. And then we have the International Convention of Maritime Search and Rescue as well as a focused legislation by the name of Migrant Smuggling Protocol to the UN Transnational Organized Crimes Convention (UNOTC). All these international legislations focus on the sacrosanct subject of the safety of life at sea.

Thus in disasters like the current one at hand, it is the states from whose shores such derelict unsafe boats are allowed to leave for sea and states in whose vicinity these boats transit that come under greater focus. The question of the right to visit, board and search a vessel/boat/flag flying another flag in international waters is very clear in international maritime law, and when human lives are at stake, states have all the legal wherewithal to board such vessels for early rescue. However, persistent maritime disasters point towards a deviant practice which needs to be looked in by the international community.

We must remember that illegal migrants are victims of an international mafia which exploits their economic fears and lands them on derelict unsafe ships. States enforce laws for unsafe joyrides in entertainment parks; why not do the same at sea which is universal jurisdiction as far as Search and Rescue is concerned. Search & Rescue is an international obligation and a mariner’s first duty at sea; so why do we tolerate criminal delay or neglect?

The writer is an independent maritime scholar based in Lahore.