Mediterranean Sea: MSF relaunches search and rescue operations
Our new vessel, Oyvon, has been refitted and equipped to help support people on one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announces the relaunch of our lifesaving search and rescue (SAR) activities on the Mediterranean Sea. This comes almost a year after we were forced to terminate operations with our last rescue vessel, the Geo Barents.
Our new rescue vessel Oyvon, which means “hope for the island” in Norwegian, has been refitted and equipped to conduct SAR operations on one of the world’s deadliest migration routes. Oyvon was previously operated as an ambulance vessel in Norway.
“As a medical and humanitarian organization, our commitment to being present at sea and supporting people on the move is unwavering,” says Juan Matias Gil, MSF SAR representative. “We have returned to carry out the duty of rescue for those who find themselves in distress at sea, forced to take unseaworthy boats, after having endured deplorable and inhumane conditions, detention, abuse and extortion in Libya.”
Restrictive policies made SAR almost impossible
MSF was forced to halt rescue activities of the Geo Barents in December 2024, after more than two years of operating under restrictive Italian laws and policies, particularly the Piantedosi Decree and the distant port practice. These restrictive rules made operating the Geo Barents unfeasible; despite its capacity of up to 700 people, it was routinely directed to distant ports while carrying only around 50 survivors.
“MSF’s decision to run a smaller, faster vessel is a strategic response to the restrictive and obstructive laws and practice imposed by the Italian government, which specifically targets humanitarian rescue vessels,” says Gil.
By returning to the Mediterranean Sea, MSF also aims to report on and document the experiences of people who flee Libya. We will collect their accounts of violent interceptions at sea at the hands of the Libyan Coast Guard and other agencies, as well as their forced return to Libya, which has been recognized as a violation of international maritime, human rights and refugee law by Italian courts and UN bodies.
In recent months, there have been an increase in violent attacks in international waters by the Libyan Coast Guard and other armed groups against people crossing the Mediterranean Sea, as well as against humanitarian rescue vessels.
The MSF crew onboard includes a doctor and a nurse to provide medical care in life-threatening situations and treat people for hypothermia, fuel inhalation, fuel burns, as well as wounds they might have sustained in the cycle of abuse and detention in Libya.
