The Cruel Sea: The Mission to Save Lives on the Mediterranean | Foreign Correspondent

it's high summer in the mediterranean and when the sea is calm it becomes europe's deadliest crossings [Music] tens of thousands fleeing africa for a better life you fight or you find solution or you died italy wants to stop the boats even if it costs lives i'm in the sea trying to keep the people alive and you send me to call malta we join a rescue group saving boats in defiance of italy so they see you as the enemy absolutely yes and we follow migrants on their perilous path to europe [Music] we're about to set sail on a high-stakes mission open arms rescues migrants and refugees in distress its founder and director oscar camps says its one aim is to save lives he was once a lifeguard patrolling the calm beaches of barcelona now his passion is using life-saving skills on the open sea he says open arms has rescued 62 000 people in the past six years these days he's also fighting european governments trying to turn back the boats is open arms would normally take out a big rescue ship capable of saving hundreds of people and taking them to the nearest port but in april italy impounded the open arms ship to stop them helping migrants in defiance they're taking out this yacht [Music] called the astral it's too small to rescue large numbers of people the plan is to find boats in trouble and keep the passengers safe until emergency authorities arrive once they've worked closely with coast guards together we help protect eu's borders and make europe a safer home for all of us but europe's border agency frontex has embraced australia's hard line against so-called boat people this year as crossings increased italy not only impounded the open arms rescue ship it seized the vessels of four other non-government rescue groups or ngos claiming they weren't fit to operate [Music] they punish those who are helping people at sea so they see you as the enemy absolutely yes they don't even share information about the targets they prefer the votes be lost at sea then tell us it is the first rule of the sea you have to help those in danger gerard canals will lead rescues with two lifeguards albert roma and irena morero when they hear of migrants in distress they'll use small speed boats to reach them the captain will try to persuade the coast guards to come to their aid it's going to take us three days to reach the search and rescue zone and for now as far as ngo rescue missions go this boat is basically it's for the entire central mediterranean the crew of eight will sail us around an area of more than quarter of a million square kilometers to try to find and help people before they drown with almost no wind the boat motors slowly toward the strait of sicily [Music] the central mediterranean is divided into nominal search and rescue zones though open arms claims every country is failing its legal obligations our destination is the italian island of lampedusa 90 nautical miles from malta it's the closest european landfall to libya so it's where many of the migrant boats are heading the crew monitors the emergency radio channel around the clock boats use it to call for help the sea is eerily calm as we approach lampedusa it means the boats are coming [Music] soon the astral picks up a distress call from a fisherman and the first night of rescues begins a fisherman seems to have found a refugee vote they say they were children among the people that they found we changed our course and now we're heading towards this position [Music] it is difficult to find the boat and the situation is more stressful because you don't see anything [Music] in the inky darkness the crew prepares to take out a speedboat your first rescue how do you feel um i'll tell you later good luck thank you [Music] while the lifeguards search for the boat the captain service tries to persuade the italians or the maltese to mount a rescue i know i understand you sir can you repeat please you are in the star area of manca do you call emerald to request the article so i listen to distress and i come to help yes okay sir i give you the number of emergency mousetraps i have it i have it i call him but number the answer okay okay that's good the rescue team finds a small wooden boat packed solid with more than 50 people hey stop the energy we need to go to you so stop the engine please how many children how many children if you stand up in dangerous sit down please hey sit down please they've come from the libyan port of zuwara and have no lights or provisions and they're running low on fuel one by one there's a light jacket for everyone so don't don't worry don't worry but the italians won't come and the maltese won't even answer i try you have to try this number zero zero three five i'm in the sea trying to keep the people alive and you send me to call malta i have children on board what do i have [Music] [Music] why don't you solve this problem [Music] the migrants have traveled from as far south as zimbabwe to start the journey from libya were you scared to come across the ocean 50 50. so you might live you might die but you are prepared to risk your life to come to here they've been on the water for 24 hours [Music] and their weight has just begun italy finally agrees to connect astral to the maltese emergency service by radio hello go ahead yes i have one fishing boat position three five degrees one four point four minutes north uh yes can you send an email okay i send you one email right now we are expecting maltese authorities to coordinate the rescue force but we are very close to anterosa just 30 nautical miles away looks like nobody wants them no that is what usually happens they don't really want to take care of these people in other occasions we've seen how they delay to send balls to rescue these people and in the end they capsize and we have some casualties [Music] one hour has passed and we don't have any new information can you update us i don't have a news for you email to master yeah sir my fees authorities are not responding i don't know what else should we do you must waste your record [Music] yes sir we have been doing nothing but waiting close to dawn with no response from malta italy blinks [Music] one hour and 20 minutes yes okay rendezvous in one hour in 30 minutes okay perfect [Music] the italian coast guard capitulates and transfers the migrants to its rescue vessel [Music] it's obliged by international law to rescue boats in distress but the italian government is trying to stop any boats getting this farm it's funding the libyan coast guard to intercept boats and force them back administrative and credibility in july a rescue ngo filmed a libyan coast guard ship firing at migrants who refuse to stop so called libyan coast guard what you do is very dangerous look how close it will be the italians have provided libya with 16 ships [Music] the eu border agency frontex even trains their crews [Music] often people chanting this journey aren't just escaping war or poverty increasingly they're trying to escape libya itself because tens of thousands have tried to cross from there have been held in detention camps often run by the militias a un report says they suffer unimaginable horrors gang rape starvation beatings torture even death now the u.n is very clear it's illegal to send these migrants back to libya but that is now the official policy of some european countries pushing them back to what could be more unimaginable horrors what europe and the european union is doing to these people it's disgusting it's totally awful it's something that we cannot admit and i think as long as i can do something for them i'm going to do it it's been a stressful first night for the rescuers but any thoughts of resting are soon dispelled the boats keep on coming [Music] well this is extraordinary it's just three hours since the coast guard picked up the last boat and out of nowhere this boat has just appeared the crews had no sleep moments later another boat appears on the horizon [Music] hello hello how are you how many people are 73 73 [Music] don't worry man don't worry okay sit down everyone sit down sit down everyone sit down sit down i have one wooden boat with more than seven zero people in the day okay we are going there but uh stay here so if we need that we can ask your help a oscar's passion was ignited by the syrian refugee crisis of 2015 when thousands drowned trying to cross from turkey to greece he flew to the island of lesbos with no equipment to see how he could help as a lifeguard he was shocked to see there was no coordinated rescue just chaos the millpond sea is proving a magnet for crossings ever more boats competing for limited rescue resources in the blur of constant rescues one call cuts [Music] the distress call is from a man called muhammad who claims he's a fisherman okay okay mohammed we are very close to your position very near you he says he's found a boat with nine people including five children and a very sick baby [Music] the crew's volunteer nurse christina esteban sets up an emergency treatment post in the cabin the prospect of a dying child shakes them all [Music] christina goes out with the crew to administer first aid they arrive to find a very different scene from the one described hello not only is the baby in good health the boat is less crowded the migrants have more provisions than any we've seen it appears muhammad is not a fisherman but a smuggler offering a fake emergency to guarantee pickup as part of the service the crew escorts the boat to the coast guard if they're angry at being played they don't show it does it get frustrating when you get these very dramatic messages that maybe are just to get make sure they get rescued no no it is much better so i prefer to work for nothing instead of doing the opposite rescues like this fuel criticism that ngo boats act as a pull factor for migrants and traffickers is the figures back him up so far this year there's been a big rise in migrants crossing even while no ngos were operating the difference was almost a thousand people drowned more than twice the previous year [Music] the wind picks up and for the first time the astral is in full sail [Music] a storm is brewing down south oscar camps worries what it might mean a we anchor off lampedusa to wait out the storm it's a chance for me to jump ship and see what life is like for migrants who make it to shore the island is teeming with italian tourists but the arrival of migrants is kept out of view of the public they'll be transferred to detention camps on the main island of sicily for processing [Music] almost all will apply for asylum seven out of ten will be rejected [Music] in the capital palermo abdullah jatta has lived in limbo for five years he left the grinding poverty of gambia to provide for his family eventually reaching libya in search of work my friends foreign [Music] he crossed the mediterranean by boat but was denied residency and survives doing low-paid labor that italians won't do so what would you tell young people now in gambia would you tell them to to try and make this trip to europe no intellect is [Music] gambian batumbalo also struggled as an undocumented worker it's very difficult to live here without documents you have to get job before you get documents and now you don't get job because you don't have documents you know this is this is obviously is is ridiculous but with the help of migrant advocates batch has managed to enroll in a public college so what are you studying now i'm studying nursing like yeah when i finish my studies i would like to go back to my country because the they need people like like us both men despair at the number of people still risking their lives for an impossible dream [Music] foreign [Music] when i saw the sea there is things that i think about to turned to be a graveyard because people like me they wanted to come and study they want to come and learn but they lost their life italy's tough line has failed to stop migrants risking their lives [Music] [Music] [Music] we found the little boat we found the little boat back on the astral the crew comes across a group of youths and unaccompanied minors from tunisia all hoping they're coming to a better world three days earlier a presidential coup plunged their country into chaos okay in the full moon the swell is rising even after the crew attaches a life boy the boat is slowly sinking we see that the boat was very small overcrowded and embarking water people was really in danger so that's why we decided to take this action and put the live crafts at sea now we have these 17 people on board live waiting for lamperosa and malta to take responsibility on this case well it's 4am and we've been uh towing the life raft for about five hours now as usual the italians have been saying call the maltese and the maltese haven't been answering not answering the radio not taking phone calls not replying to two emails this is the search and rescue authority it's bizarre [Music] just before dawn the italian coast guard finally arrives after two weeks at sea it's time for open arms to head home to resupply on this 83rd mission it's conducted 15 rescue operations helping 398 migrants oscar camps insists they will keep going out while there are lives to be saved [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 66,566

Keywords: Foreign Correspondent, abc news australia, abc, abc news, mediterranean migrants, migrants drown in mediterranean, migrants drown, Proactiva Open Arms, mediterraneo film, italian coast guard, rescues, migrant crisis europe, boat people, african migrants, mediterranean documentary, european migration, crossing the mediterranean sea by boat, crossing the mediterranean sea from libya, oscar camps, Mediterranean Sea

Id: 6ncgXVFfmSc

Length: 30min 52sec (1852 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021