The rescue of refugees: a challenge for the merchant fleet

Rescue medical activities among sea migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean region: lessons to be learned from the 2014–2020 period

“…Afterwards the centre and the Government to which the region belongs falls under the obligation to coordinate the whole rescue effort either by sending state vessels, or any vessel they judge as capable of performing the operation at the time and to arrange for a safe disembarkation of those rescued (Fig. 1) [1][2][3].…”

“…Suffering from traumatic events, including witnessing people drowning and being exposed to violence contributed to a heavy psychological burden in such populations resulting some times in medically unexplained physical symptoms [9]. The concern for communicable diseases seems to be impractical both due to their low prevalence in the provenance of the refugees, the lack of vectors to transmit tropical diseases during the trip and the fact that a previous long journey through the Sahara surpasses the incubation period of several viral or bacterial infections [2,10]. More specific fourth study gathering information from children arriving in Spain through the West Mediterranean route ends up in similar findings regarding the medical conditions observed in such population [11].…”

“…Bearing in mind the above analysis regarding the consistency of the population in distress at sea, several papers offer insight on how a medical team needs to be organized on board as well as how to perform correctly a SAR operation through medical perspective. Vessel adjustments and proper crew formation seems to be of crucial importance [2,8,9,16]. According to Dittman et al [2] the flight deck of a rescue boat needs to be divided to three areas, one for those rescued, one for those requiring medical attention and one with toilets and washing facilities.…”

“…Vessel adjustments and proper crew formation seems to be of crucial importance [2,8,9,16]. According to Dittman et al [2] the flight deck of a rescue boat needs to be divided to three areas, one for those rescued, one for those requiring medical attention and one with toilets and washing facilities. Rescuing from the water was performed through two life rafts after the proper implementation of personal protective equipment (PPE) by the rescuers.…”

Potentially traumatic experiences of seafarers

“…In the past, merchant ships have been repeatedly involved in large-scale rescue operations of refugees stranded on the high seas. Often the ship’s crews are overwhelmed because of their low personnel levels and, above all, their lack of experience with large-scale rescue operations on the high seas [26]. The sometimes dramatic rescue experiences, especially dealing with the injured and the sick, as well as the confrontation with drowned people, also represent a considerable psychological burden for the crews on merchant ships.…”