The nature of cooperation in fulfilling the obligation to rescue at sea

Abstract

This dissertation analyses shipmasters’ and States’ obligations to assist, search, and rescue. Whilst shipmasters are obliged to rescue anyone in distress at sea, coastal States are obliged to establish search and rescue facilities and provide search and rescue services to those in distress within their particular Search and Rescue Region. Particularly, UNCLOS, SOLAS, and the SAR Convention establish a duty of cooperation to enhance search and rescue performance. The ever-increasing issue of migrants taking to the seas in unseaworthy vessels, particularly in the Mediterranean, stressed the necessity that effective cooperation is exercised by the States involved to ensure that no more lives are lost at sea. The duty to cooperate entails coordinative actions of two or more States to attain an objective. In a rescue at sea context, cooperation between the involved parties can take multiple forms; joint-operations between neighbouring States, facilitating entry of foreign vessels into territorial waters for search and rescue purposes, and establishing mutual regional arrangements. This is for the purpose of saving lives ta sea and protecting rescuees’ human rights. Furthermore, with the 2004 amendments to SOLAS and the SAR Convention, Contracting Governments are obliged to cooperate to relieve shipmasters from their obligations and disembark the rescuees in a place of safety. This dissertation analysed how cooperation is mostly stalled during disembarkation stages. This study concludes that the duty to cooperate is merely effective. Often, it is hindered by overriding national interests of States. With a lacking default State for disembarkation under the law, arguably every irregular migrant rescue operation incident gives rise to conflicts amongst the Mediterranean States, particularly Italy and Malta. The fact that both States are regulated by different rules complicates matters. It is imperative that all States’ rescue obligations are harmoniously regulated, and that effective, predictable disembarkation and relocation mechanisms are established.