The Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) is an international NGO specialized in search and rescue (SAR). MOAS rescued almost 37,000 persons from the Mediterranean Sea between August 2014 and June 2017.
In current operations, MOAS assists the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome to mitigate loss of life at sea by providing search and rescue services, food, water, life jackets and emergency medical care to migrant vessels in distress. When migrants are taken on board, under the coordination of MRCC Rome, MOAS then follows orders when it comes to disembarkation.
Video Migrant Offshore Aid Station
History
MOAS was set up after the tragedies of 2013 when two vessels, one carrying people from Eritrea and Somalia and one carrying Syrian refugees, capsized on the way from North Africa to Europe. Each year, thousands of people, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Syria, risk their lives when attempting this perilous crossing on rickety boats. MOAS was established to mitigate this loss of life at sea to the greatest extent possible. MOAS uses all its resources to assist the respective rescue coordination centres in locating and treating suffering human beings, and to save lives where required.
Christopher and Regina Catrambonefounded the project in 2013 with the aim of alleviating the needless suffering of thousands of people seeking a safe and stable new home. MOAS has received various awards since it was set up, including Italy's Order of Meritand Malta's Medal for Service for the Republic (Midalja g?all-Qadi tar-Repubblika). MOAS also received an award for Civic Engagement by the Today Public Policy Institute in November 2015. In 2016, MOAS received The Geuzen Medal.
Maps Migrant Offshore Aid Station
Operation
The operation is coordinated from the island of Malta, which lies in the central Mediterranean Sea and is close to the Italian islands of Sicily and Lampedusa. Italy and Malta are at the center of a migratory route connecting North Africa to Europe. Over the past years, both countries have coordinated and been directly involved in hundreds of cases saving thousands of lives at sea. MOAS is a professional operation designed for search and rescue. It is equipped with a crew of 24 including seafarers, rescuers, paramedics and doctors. The Phoenix has its own clinic and rescue RHIBs to assist in search and rescue.
Phoenix
The MOAS specialist SAR vessel, named Phoenix, is a 40-metre (136-ft) steel boat built in 1973. She has a gross tonnage of 483 tons.
Aerial Assets
Throughout the missions from 2014 to 2016, the Phoenix was equipped with two Camcopter S-100 remote piloted aircraft (RPAs) which monitor the seas from the sky and provide real-time intelligence to MOAS and the rescue coordination center of Malta and Italy. These RPAs have a range of 100 km (practically the distance between Malta and Sicily), a maximum speed of 200 km per hour and a flight time of six hours. Once spotted, the cameras give the crew images large enough to be able to read from a piece of paper in someone's hand. For their 2017 missions, MOAS has been operating with a manned aerial asset.
Missions
2014 Mission in the Central Mediterranean
The Migration Offshore Aid Station inaugurated its first twenty-day mission on Monday August 25, 2014. It set sail from Malta's Grand Harbour at around noon after a press conference held at the Birgu Marina. In the evening, as it returned close to Malta to pick up some equipment, the Phoenix came about a very worried Maltese fisherman whose boat was drifting off Delimara (close to Marsaxlokk) after its engine failed. The man managed to attract the attention of the MOAS crew by waving. The three-metre boat was tied up alongside the Phoenix until help was called.
MOAS organised its first migrant rescue on August 30 when it assisted a group of 250 Syrians and Palestinians, including 40 children. On the same day, the Phoenix also assisted some 96 Sub-Saharan migrants from a rubber dinghy who were transferred onto a merchant ship. On September 8, the Phoenix conducted two rescues involving almost 700 migrants, including 83 women and children. A two-day old infant was among the people saved.
A day later, another 500 migrants were rescued from two separate vessels, bringing the tally up to 1,500 migrants saved in less than two weeks at sea. MOAS rescued another 1,500 migrants throughout October, bringing the total number of lives saved to 3,000. MOAS launched its crowdfunding effort in October and by 2015 had already raised some $70,000. In February 2015, MOAS made a specific appeal to the maritime industry and mariners who are required to respond to emergencies. It said that seafarers transiting the Mediterranean would be especially affected by the numbers of refugees crossing from Libya to Italy after projects like the Italian mission Mare Nostrum were no longer in operation.
2015 Mission in the Central Mediterranean
MOAS continued to operate in the Central Mediterranean Sea between May and September 2015, during which time it assisted almost 9,000 refugees, bringing its total number of lives saved until the end of 2015 to 12,000.
Doctors Without Borders partnered with MOAS from May to September 2015 on board the MY Phoenix where they cared for 6,985 people rescued at sea after rescue by MOAS. The 6 person team included logistics, publicity and medical teams who cared for migrants on board the Phoenix needing treatment for conditions ranging from dehydration to gunshot wounds.
Mission in the Aegean Sea: December 2015 to March 2016
Having received a "tidal wave of support" in donations following the death of Alan Kurdi, MOAS expanded its mission to the Aegean Sea between December 2015 and April 2016.
On January 2, it announced that it has assisted a boat of 39 migrants, 11 of whom were injured by the violent impact on the sharp island rocks. A three-month old infant boy was severely hypothermic and was stabilized. On January 12, 2016, MOAS assisted a vessel of Syrian refugees who had washed ashore on the island of Agathonisi. The group included a two-year-old boy who became the first known migrant casualty that year.
For this mission, MOAS used the Topaz Responder, a 51-meter custom-made emergency response vessel, which hosts two high-speed rescue launches. These smaller rescue vessels are named Alan and Galip, in honour of the Kurdi brothers whose deaths shocked the world in September 2015.
In April 2016, the sharp fall in attempted crossings in the aftermath of the EU-Turkey deal and unfolding mass tragedies in the Central Mediterranean prompted the repositioning of all MOAS assets to the Central Mediterranean.
2016 Mission in the Central Mediterranean
MOAS launched its 2016 Central Mediterranean operation on 6 June, rescuing and assisting over 20.000 men, women and children before the close of the year, during which MOAS' SAR vessels operated in international waters 12-16 nautical miles off the coast of Libya. The 2016 Mission was run in conjunction with operational partners Red Cross Italy, who provided vital medical and psychosocial assistance, cultural mediation, food, clothing and emergency resources to the beneficiaries while they were on board.
2017 Mission in the Central Mediterranean
MOAS launched its 2017 Central Mediterranean operation on 1 April aboard the Phoenix and with their own medical team, and supported by a manned aerial asset. Over the Easter Weekend Rescue, MOAS' crew members supervised an estimated 1,500 people overnight.
End of Mediterranean Missions
In September 2017, MOAS announced the ending of their missions in the Mediterranean, and their intent to transfer to assisting Myanmar's threatened Rohingya group of Muslims.
Start of Mission to Myanmar and Bangladesh
On 14 October 2017, after a three week voyage, MOAS' vessel Phoenix and a largely Italian medical team set up a first Aid Station in Shamlapur, a fishing village in Cox's Bazar District, Bangladesh. Near here, many Rohingya refugees arriving by boat have taken shelter. The intent is to provide medical care to both refugee and host communities, particularly in light of the poor conditions in the makeshift camps, where there is a high proportion of vulnerable groups, including children, pregnant women and new mothers.
Funding
The MOAS group is made up of humanitarians, medical staff and experienced maritime operators. They are passionate about the plight of migrants and the dangers they face as they try to find a life free of violence.
MOAS' initial 60-day mission in 2014 was funded through the contributions of its founders and donations from private citizens.
Since 2015, MOAS has been privately funded through the support of the public, grant-making organisations, crowd-funding initiatives, foundations and corporate sponsorship. Operations partners, such as MSF, Red Cross Italy, and the International Federation of the Red Cross, have also been major contributors to MOAS missions. MOAS' annual reports and financial statements are available on the MOAS website.
Investigation
In April 2017, Carmelo Zuccaro, the chief prosecutor of the Sicilian port city of Catania, accused MOAS of having ties with people smugglers in Libya. In the same statement the prosecutor said that he was still trying to gather evidences of those ties. The accusation came during a time of growth of anti-immigrant sentiment in Italy, where many feel that their EU partner nations are not assisting adequately with the problem of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
However, Italian authorities, including Parliament speaker Laura Boldrini and Justice Minister Andrea Orlando, criticised Zuccaro for spreading allegations without any proof. Zuccaro subsequently said that he had no proof of any wrongdoing.
References
External links
- MOAS Website
- MOAS Twitter
- MOAS FAQs
- MOAS Youtube
- MOAS Facebook
- The Migrant Offshore Aid Station Trailer
Source of article : Wikipedia
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