shipowning associations ECSA and ICS speed up all the States EU to face the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean



As a result of the umpteenth and most serious happened tragedy two days ago in the Mediterranean, with the shipwreck in the channel of Sicily of a boat loaded with migrants who have caused to hundred of victims, and the outcome of the reunion yesterday of the ministers of the Foreign policies and internal of the European Union in which a fort is confirmed engagement in order to prevent the mass slaughters that are ollowed in the Mediterranean, shipowning associations ECSA and ICS have restated their exhortation to the nations of the EU so that they face this humanitarian crisis and they have manifested appreciation in particular for the decision to convene for next thursday an extraordinary reunion of the European Council in order to face the serious problem.

"The capacity of the tragedy happened in the weekend - it has emphasized the general secretary of the European Community Shipowners' Associations (ECSA), Patrick Verhoeven - is unprecedented and the European leaders cannot more ignore the catastrophe that verification to the marine border of the EU".

Remembering that the industry of the shipping agrees on the absolute necessity to find means in order to repress the dealers of human beings and in order to by sea face the complex causes of this migration of mass of tens of thousands of desperate people, Verhoeven it has restated that "however the more urgent and immediate priority is that the Member States of the EU increase to the resources for the operations of search and aid before others thousands of people die". "The supply of financings and resources for the operations of search and aid - it has added the general secretary of the European shipowning association - constitutes a positive step, but a greater clarity is necessary in order to comprise the implications in operating in the picture of the mandate of Frontex", the communitarian organism that coordinates the activities of patrolling of the frontiers of the European Union.

"We indeed need a Mare Nostrum operation of the EU", it has found the general secretary of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), Peter Hinchliffe, referring to the Italian humanitarian operation that, before being suspended last year, in 2014 has coordinated the rescue of some 200.000 people, 40,000 of which aids from mercantile ships. "Italy, Malta and other countries of the Mediterranean and the mercantile ships on which they have made confidence for hundred of rescue operations on wide scale, many that they have involved hundred of people - have observed Hinchliffe - simply they cannot continue to manage the situation without the collective support of all Member States of the European Union, that they must act quickly, without ulterior procrastinations".