Dprotruding behind the steel gray of a military building, the red hull of theocean viking brings a touch of color to the Toulon naval base. On board the rescue ship chartered by the NGO SOS Méditerranée, 230 people arrived exhausted on Friday morning, around 8:30 a.m. Rescued off the Libyan coast between October 22 and 26, the migrants finally made landfall, after a journey of about twenty days and a diplomatic standoff between France and Italy which refused to welcome them.
“It’s a sad record of waiting at sea, blows Xavier Lauth, director of operations at SOS Méditerranée. You have to imagine all these people sleeping on the wooden deck with a blanket, this constant promiscuity that generates tension. More than 80 were seasick, including on two days of heavy swells, some were affected by severe flu, including nine members of our team. Many were dehydrated, burned, ate little, many had suffered extreme trauma on their journey from their home countries, things as dramatic as kidnappings, rapes, torture and slavery. »
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Coming from sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh or Syria, a non-exhaustive list, these passengers of despair, including more than fifty children, were the subject of requests for disembarkation in Malta and Italy as soon as they were rescued at sea. Then, “given the deafening silence, we turned to France, Greece and Spain”, rewinds Louise Guillaumat, assistant to Xavier Lauth. “Again, no response. The health situation on board becoming more and more critical, on November 7, a port was requested from France. We were able to evacuate three people by helicopter to Bastia hospital before we were allowed to land in Toulon”.
An “international waiting area” on the Giens peninsula
From the night before their arrival, rescuers had been able to board theocean viking to make a point and send another survivor to a hospital. “It is a question of offering them the best humanitarian reception conditions, indicates Camille Chaize, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior. We must now proceed to the administrative control of these people. Some have passports, some don’t, some claim to be minors and maybe aren’t. Some who come from countries where their life is in danger, where they are persecuted, may be eligible for an asylum application, but others are not. In this case, they will be taken back to their country of origin. »
In the meantime, these migrants tossed around for three weeks are placed in a social center rented by the State on the Giens peninsula, very close to Hyères. Impossible to approach this “international waiting zone” where they can be kept for twenty days. “They cannot leave this sealed zone, supervised by the border police”, specifies Camille Chaize. This is where everyone’s case will be examined. Eleven European countries have made it known that they would take their part in welcoming two-thirds of them.READ ALSO“Ocean Viking”: Macron cracks up against Meloni
If France receives 100,000 asylum applications each year, accepting around half, these 230 have become a symbol. “That of unworthy European democracies that politically exploit the lives of these people. It’s hostage-taking,” says the director general of SOS Méditerranée, Sophie Beau. “I had never seen such a situation, abounds the president of the NGO, François Thomas. If we speak of shipwreck, it is that of responsibilities. We welcome France’s decision, but it is not normal to have to disembark people so far from the place of their rescue at sea.” Even if 85% of migrants are picked up by the coastguards, associations play a role preponderant. In seven years, the organization, known to have also used theAquariusclaims to have saved approximately 37,000 lives.
Visit of Zemmour
“Immigration, with economic and climatic changes, is the challenge of the century”, worries the LFI MP for Marseille Sébastien Delogu, following the operations on the port of Toulon. “It’s the end of the ordeal for these 230 people and their rescuers, but we must at least try to organize the reception of these people. By denying their access to Italy, the Meloni government has violated international law and this is unacceptable. »
On the other side of the square which marries the entrance to the Toulon arsenal, Éric Zemmour is on an opposite register. Surrounded by around fifty activists who face supporters of the reception of migrants, the boss of Reconquête!, hardly more visible since the presidential election, says “not to know any other laws than that of the sovereign French people. France is not the outlet for immigration. And if we don’t want Europe to become Africa, we must refuse to welcome these people in Europe. We have to stop this little game between the smugglers who know when there will be boats and the associations who know that a European port will welcome them”.
A game that does not seem to be one for SOS Méditerranée. After respecting a technical stopover of a few weeks, she intends to “go back to sea”. This morning, twelve alerts were triggered for shipwrecked people in the central Mediterranean, but no operational boat is on site. About 1,300 people have drowned there since the beginning of the year, more than 20,000 since 2014.