Calls made for improved safety for migrants after tragedy

(Vatican Radio) The Jesuit Refugee Service is asking for improved systems of search and rescue in order to keep people from dying on the open seas. Their appeal was made after 54 people died this week while on route from Libya to Italy. The tragedy happened in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, and the JRS is urging EU leaders and member state governments to put in place systems that can reliably identify boats in distress and initiate actions for their immediate rescue.

Stefan Kessler, Policy and Advocacy Officer at JRS, told Vatican Radio what is needed is “a mechanism that would ensure once a boat in distress is detected, the migrants off this boat are rescued and brought to a safe haven.”

He also said European policy makers are not giving any attention to the safety of migrants.

“We are focusing in the political debate very much on border management, very much on closing the borders, but we are not dealing in that context with saving lives,” Kessler said. “We have had quite a lot of tragedies over the past years, and the European Union did nothing on that.”

Listen to interview by Olivier Bonnel with Stefan Kessler: