Médecins Sans Frontières - INTRO: Mediterranean Sea

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF200044

Date taken / Date Recorded 27/06/2017 12:00 AM

Country Mediterranean Sea

Commissioning section MSF-SPAIN

Photographer / videographer / producer Anna Surinyach

Copyright Anna Surinyach/MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 4m24s

Maximum Size 3840px × 1920px 325.15 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Staying alive
On board a search and rescue ship

Welcome to Dignity I. You are on board one of the rescue vessels run by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders after the Mediterranean Sea became a mass grave as a result of the European Union’s lack of action. We are leaving the port of Malta and heading towards the ‘rescue zone’, a few dozen nautical miles from Libya. This is the area where thousands of people die every year trying to reach Europe. This ship, which is fifty metres long, is on a mission to rescue people who are risking their lives at sea – something which should really be the responsibility of European authorities.

We are now in the rescue zone. You are on Dignity I’s rescue launch, which takes to the waves when a boat in distress is sighted. This is the most tense moment of the rescue. On the rescue launch are members of the crew, a doctor and a cultural mediator. There are one hundred people in this wooden boat. If panic breaks out, the boat could capsize and people could end up drowning. The European Union has closed its borders and outsourced border controls to third countries. These policies push hundreds of thousands of people every year down illegal routes: it is the most dangerous journey of their lives.

Once the lifejackets have been handed out, the rescue mission can begin. The first to be moved are children, pregnant women and injured people. Now a Syrian couple are boarding the boat with their ten-month-old daughter, Lamar. A young man from Ghana, Ismail, is also getting on board, along with his pregnant wife. Dignity I has come to help them, but not all rescues in dangerous conditions go as smoothly. Sometimes the boats take on water and capsize, and by the time the rescue vessels arrive, it is already too late.

The rescue launch makes repeated trips from the wooden boat to the rescue ship until everyone has been transferred. Boarding Dignity I is a joyous moment for the rescued people: they realise that their lives have been saved, and that they won’t be swallowed by the sea. On board Dignity I, the medical team give them first aid. Often people are dehydrated and disorientated, others have wounds or burns caused by the diesel. This rescue was a lucky one: there were no injuries and everything went as planned.

For many of the rescued people, this is their first moment of peace and tranquillity for a long time. Behind them is what they went through in Libya, their experiences of persecution, torture and war. Now they are in a place where they feel safe and are treated with dignity. Dignity I, which can accommodate 300 to 400 people, will take between one and two days to reach Italy. Night falls. The rescued people are sleeping. Perhaps they are dreaming about their arrival in Europe, now their nightmare in Libya is consigned to the past.

We’re almost in Italy. The Sicilian port of Messina looms on the horizon. These are anxious and exciting moments. People can’t contain their euphoria.

This is the end of the journey and the start of a new life. Now they are in Europe, but they don’t know what the future holds. When they disembark, they will be registered by the Italian police, be received by teams of aid workers, and then taken to a detention centre. It has been barely two days since their lives were saved, but they don’t even have time to think. Now they need to claim asylum, search for family members and adapt to a Europe that continues to close its borders, indifferent to their escape from war and despair.

INTRO: Mediterranean Sea - VIDEO 360 (EN)

INTRO: Mediterranean Sea - VIDEO 360 (EN)