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Since the summer of 2016, pilots from eastern Switzerland have rescued refugees from the Mediterranean. But two weeks ago, Malta withdrew its humanitarian pilots initiative.
"The decision came overnight without explanation," says Appenzeller Fabio Zgraggen (33). He is a pilot and co-founder of the Humanitarian Pilots Initiative. In the last two years, pilots from Eastern Switzerland have conducted search flights from Malta and reported distress boats for various rescue vessels.
But it's over now. The Maltese authorities have withdrawn permission from Eastern Switzerland to take off. They were informed in writing that search and rescue flights would no longer be approved unless requested by Malta or Italy, writes Mr. Watson. "The absurd thing about this is that it does not need a license for such rescue flights." We are organized and privately funded. from a request from a country for our operations. "
Pilots stranded
" In our opinion, the Maltese authorities are illegal, "says Zgraggen in an interview with Watson. The pilot organization has all the necessary documents for the rescue flights. "We asked Malta to answer our questions, but we are stuck." Zgraggen believes that the behavior of the Maltese authorities has come because of political pressure. Since Italy refused entry to refugee boats since June, European refugee policy began to falter
A refugee boat on the Mediterranean Eastern pilots from Switzerland had been discovered. ZVg
Zgraggen exasperates this situation: "At the moment, we are being prevented from saving human lives. It is as if an emergency vehicle was not left to an accident. In Switzerland it would be a criminal offense.
The death toll increases
Now, the organization has hired a lawyer to obtain a departure permit. But for the moment, the pilots have to sit idly by and see the worsening of the tragedy of refugees in the Mediterranean. "This creates a huge blind spot on the sea, because no one knows what's going on, the only thing we see is how the death toll goes up, and how huge it is." According to Zgraggen, there is had 564 deaths in June, against ten to twenty in the previous months, drowning in the Mediterranean. 19659011] If help arrives too late, refugees drown. © zVg
The humanitarian pilots of eastern Switzerland are not the only ones who are prevented by the authorities from rescuing refugees. "Ships of non-governmental organizations are no longer allowed to go on a rescue mission and are stranded in the port." Ships rescuing refugees are no longer allowed to dock in Italian ports. Recently, the ship of the NGO "Open Arms" had to go to Spain to bring the rescued people to the ground. The Italian Coast Guard has also withdrawn.
Refugees do not have any other choice
Zgraggen is convinced that the accusation is false: NGOs would be a factor of attraction in the Mediterranean, resulting in refugees in the dangerous sea. "People are entering the boats because of the situation in their country and the situation in Libya.They enter the boats because they have no other choice." Zgraggen quotes the more than 500 people drowned last month as "sad confirmation."
Restore as quickly as possible: Humanitarian Pilot Initiative. © zVg
The pilot knows from previous missions what he looks like when help arrives too late. "So I can imagine what kind of scenes are happening at sea right now, that makes me incredibly affected."
Sailing as fast as possible
But the organization did not We do our best to get them back to the air as soon as possible and we look at other sites. "The problem is that the best aerial reconnaissance is only used to nothing as long as ships can not get out of ports.
