Action when asylum seekers and refugees are encountered at sea ? ?

146
FOLLOW

Asylum seekers and refugees
A “refugee” is defined in article 1 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 as a person who, “owing to well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”. Such persons may nowadays be encountered at sea in many parts of the world, usually in small, unseaworthy craft, and will probably indicate that they are in distress. The master of any ship encountering people under such circumstances is therefore under a statutory obligation to render assistance to them
The official body responsible for the care of refugees and implementation of the 1951 Convention is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). However, the UNHCR will not usually take responsibility for a refugee until he or she has applied for asylum; until that time the person is officially termed a “migrant”. If migrants rescued at sea request asylum, the master of the rescuing ship should make arrangements to contact the nearest UNHCR office at soon as possible.
Once migrants have been rescued by a ship at sea, they are subject to the jurisdiction of the ship’s flag State.However, there is no obligation on the flag State to grant asylum.

Care of refugees on board
When migrants are taken on board, the following matters should be addressed as priorities:
1.Communication should be established with the group./ Health problems / Radio medical advice should be sought where necessary /precautions should be taken against infectious disease / Food, drink, clothing, shelter, and washing and toilet facilities should be provided. / Emergency procedures, partularly for fire and abandonment situations, should be established and instruction given to the migrants.
Landing of refugees
Although there is no binding international convention dealing with migrants while on board rescuing ships, the accepted international practice is that migrants rescued at sea should be disembarked at the next scheduled port of call, where the port State should admit them until their status can be determined and they can be either resettled or repatriated. No port State may forcibly repatriate an asylum applicant.
Masters should have access to the Guidelines for the Disembarkation of Refugees, issued by the UNHCR in 1988,which state:
1.When a vessel picks up refugees at sea, it should normally proceed to the first scheduled port of call,informing the ship’s agent of the number of refugees the vessel has on board and the circumstances of their rescue.
2.The ship’s agent should in turn inform the port and immigration authorities of the presence of refugees on board, requesting permission for the ship to enter the harbour, requesting permission for the ship to enter the harbour.
3.The ship’s agent should also inform the local UNHCR office and the diplomatic representative of the country whose flag the ship is flying.
4.Should the ship be flying the flag of a country in a position to resettle refugees, the diplomatic representative of that country will inform the local authorities of his government’s willingness to accept the refugees for resettlement, normally within 90 days of their disembarkation.
5.If the vessel flies a flag of an open registry, or a flag of a country which cannot reasonably be expected to accept refugees for resettlement, UNHCR will contact countries which have contributed to a special pool of resettlement places known as Disembarkation Resettlement Offers (DISERO) to provide disembarkation guarantees and share responsibility for subsequent resettlement Once the guarantee has been conveyed by the relevant diplomatic mission to the local authorities, immigration and UNHCR officials will board the vessel to interview the refugees. Upon completion of the interviews, the
refugees will be allowed to disembark, and they are no longer of concern to the vessel.
The following information is generally required at all ports before permission for the disembarkation of refugees can be granted and should be radioed or cabled to the next scheduled port of call as soon as possible:
name of the rescuing ship;
flag and port of registry of rescuing ship;
name and address of ship’s owner;
owner’s agent at next port;
estimated date and time of arrival at next port;
exact number of refugees on board;
date, time, latitude and longitude at time of rescue; and
state of health of refugees on board and whether they are in need of emergency medical treatment upon arrival.
Disembarkation of refugees will usually be hastened if a list of their full names, by family groups, showing date of birth, nationality and sex, is typed out and handed to the port immigration authorities on arrival or, if possible, is transmitted to the ship’s agent prior to arrival.