“There are still thousands of deaths at sea, donations are vital”: the cry of alarm from the president of SOS Méditerranée

Sophie Beau est la directrice de Sos Méditerranée. Elle rappelle la nécessité de sauver les réfugiés qui tentent la traversée de la Méditerranée. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

Sophie Beau is the co-founder and director of SOS Méditerranée, the NGO that has been working at sea to save refugees since 2016. Counting on the generosity of the general public, who fund more than 90% of their rescue operations, she explains that the association must find 24,000 euros per day to continue saving lives.

In the Mediterranean, winter does not deter migrants from crossing the sea to reach Europe.

Yes, there have been many crossings in recent weeks, but also many rescues and shipwrecks. In fact, when the weather permits, including in winter, people pushed by smugglers take to the sea despite the dangers of the crossing. We have been observing this for several years and in winter, there are risks of worsening and rapid weather changes, which has been the case in recent weeks, causing many shipwrecks.

Some have been documented, but our teams have also found themselves faced with a capsized boat, the occupants were not rescued a priori, the engine was still there, which is usually recovered by the authorities. And there was also this horrible thing. This little Yasmine, aged 11, was found alone with no survivors in a boat of 45 people. What we are constantly describing, there are many invisible shipwrecks.

Where is your boat, the Ocean Viking ?

The Ocean Viking, disembarked 163 people on December 18, including a one-month-old baby, at the port of Ravenna, in northern Italy. We had to sail for five days to get there. Then we have to go back down the entire boot to return to the operating zone after refueling. As soon as the weather allows us, there is no stoppage of operations during the holidays, of course. We are already at more than 1,900 deaths in the central Mediterranean and 2,250 deaths in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year. And I insist, it is partial, with the invisible shipwrecks. Especially since in winter, some boats are not able to cross with waves of 2 or 3 m.

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In Italy, the government requires refugees to be disembarked in assigned ports as far away from the rescue zone as possible to dissuade you from acting. Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) has just ceased its activity, how do you react ?

MSF has stopped but announced that they would return to the area. Their ship, the Geo Barents, is the largest of the NGOs present at sea, which is regrettable. It has a large rescue capacity and it is also very expensive. It is true that with the policies put in place by Italy, we can no longer rescue hundreds of people in a row because we are forbidden from patrolling offshore, looking for people in distress, once we have made an initial rescue.

You have to go to the designated port. But sometimes we do two or three rescues: on the last rotation, going back up with 34 people rescued, we came across a boat in distress with 129 more people, the Italian authorities asked us to carry out the rescue.

All these rescues have a cost, how is SOS Méditerranée financed? ?

The operations cost 24,000 euros per day, to pay for the ship and its charter of navigation personnel, but also our rescue teams and especially everything that goes with our survivors: food, the kits that we will distribute, medicines, life jackets, blankets with which they will leave, etc.

All this is financed mainly by the generosity of the general public. We have subsidies, in a small proportion. These are the 133 local authorities that are part of the platform, in total, we are aiming for €1.20 million for 2024, that's 9% of our budget. Over a year, the rescue operations cost €9 million.

What is the financial situation of the NGO? ?

We absolutely need donations, we depend enormously on the generosity of the general public. There, it is difficult, while 40% of our collections are traditionally done at the end of the year, when people do their accounts and they can also deduct part of the donation from their taxes, which is the case with SOS Méditerranée, with rates of 66%.

But the context is complicated. We don't talk much about the Mediterranean, there are other much more visible crises, in particular all the solidarity around Mayotte which is obviously justified. We also have crises in the Middle East, like in Syria. The Mediterranean Sea is really not talked about much and yet it is always the same situation, there are thousands of deaths at sea, we are a little behind on our collection provisions. I hope that we will catch up on everything by the end of the year. The last fortnight is crucial.

Why donate to SOS Méditerranée ?

To save lives. Donations allow us to do this directly. We have rescued 1,948 people since the beginning of the year on this very deadly migratory route. It is thanks to civil society and the many citizens who have supported us that we are still at sea and we need this support to continue our operations. The multitude of donations, whatever the amounts, allows us to reach the end of this challenge. It is vital.

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