Tag: Lifeboat (rescue)

Around 6am on 10 June 2017, our search and rescue ship, the Seefuchs, was idling 18 miles off the coast of Libya when Ingo, the engineer, spotted two boats. I was to learn that a Libyan boat follows behind almost every boat carrying asylum seekers. These people are known as the “engine fishers” of the Libyan Sea. The engine fishers would no doubt steal the engine (and the boat) later, but we had averted the immediate danger for the asylum seekers. The asylum seekers and the engine fishers following behind. When I returned to the Seefuchs two months later, in August, this political change had become clear. As Ingo understands better than most, rescue work isn’t political. Did the rescued need rescuing partly because of us? If we ban NGOs like ours, it's likely that fewer asylum seekers would leave for Europe by boat. Peter Martin has worked as a volunteer on three search and rescue missions with NGOs, working most recently as the driver of a rescue craft launched from a larger ship.