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THE
shipping community has long been told about
treating challenges and opportunities as
the same thing, but in the case of the Mediterranean
one must be overcome so that the other can
thrive.
The
challenge is the humanitarian crisis of
refugees streaming across the Mediterranean
south to north trying to escape the Islamic
strife of North Africa by taking whatever
boat they can to get to Europe.
The
opportunity is the absence of burdensome
emissions controls, brought about by the
very same Islamic strife because no one
dares enforce carbon emissions rules off
the North African coast, a fact which has
helped promote a transshipment boom in the
Med and will likely to produce trends of
stupendous significance in future.
That
is, if it were not blocked by the humanitarian
crisis which cripples positive developments.
One could ignore it as one does swarms of
importuning beggars in the slums of the
third world.
While
helping a fellow out in a marine disaster
is the decent thing to do, expecting to
rescue such people with increasing regularity
- on pain of fines and jail time for not
rescuing - is simply too much to ask.
Last
year, it was estimated that 3,500 perished
among the 218,000 who fled to Europe. Dealing
with that is the all too frequent reality
faced by commercial shipping as the old
code of the sea to help those in distress
puts passing ships under huge pressure.
What
was once assumed to be a rare occurence
is now half-expected as diseased and perhaps
armed and dangerous refugees fleeing Africa
for Europe cross the heavily trafficked
sea lane, posing legal risks to masters
who do not help them and without compensation
for losses they incur.
Seafarers'
Rights International (SRI) said there are
serious implications for masters in the
recent report of the launch of the new EU-funded
Frontex operation "Triton" a police
and customs operation to stem the tide.
The
UN's International Maritime Organisation
(IMO) said than 600 merchant ships were
diverted from their routes to rescue people
at sea. "These deviations are detrimental
to shipping and are not offset by any realistic
prospects of salvage awards," said
an IMO official.
But
unless this problem is solved, there is
little hope that it will be worthwhile exploiting
a golden opportunity to change world trading
patterns and by so doing make a change that
might top the container revolution in importance
and bring greater well-being to many more
people in the world.
So
what is being done about problem? Not much
as it turns out. Several United Nations
agencies have at last agreed to establish
a mechanism to improve existing interagency
communication on the "maritime aspects
of mixed migration by sea" at the IMO
in London.
Building
on the "Joint Statement on Protection
at Sea in the Twenty-First Century"
that was agreed during the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees' Dialogue on Protection
Challenges, in Geneva in December, it was
agreed to establish an interim, informal
mechanism for enhancing interagency communication
on the subject.
>From
what can be divined of a concrete nature
from the UN press release is that they are
going to develop a data base and study the
problem before contemplating further action.
What
makes this deserving of intense and constant
lobbying efforts by ship owning and shipmanaging
associations, not to mention shipper groups
who stand to benefit too, is the opportunity
that the Mediterranean Sea represents today.
Not since the days of Ancient Rome has the
Med been this important.
With
containerships heading into the 20,000-TEU
range and new era alliances ruling the waves,
changes are afoot in Med's transshipment
operations and more importantly in port
sizes.
The
UK's Port Strategy journal sees this will
bring into being bigger wayporting hubs
off the Med's main arterial tracks. Between
the existing main transshipment hubs, there
are now significant differences in available
capacity and particularly so when it comes
to serving mega ships.
For
instance, Malta Freeport quays can not all
serve the largest vessels, thus limiting
potential in providing berthing windows
for them.
Some
ports cannot provide the 17-metre draft
needed. Other qualifying factors include
the optimum routing for mega ships, available
berthing windows and new requirements flowing
out of demands from alliances.
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