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The Etienne merchant ship pulls up alongside a small wooden boat carrying 27 refugees escaping Libya
THE near month-long stand-off between Malta and a merchant ship carrying 27 rescued refugees will discourage shipping companies from carrying out their international obligation to save lives at sea, refugee-rescuers have warned.
The Etienne, a cargo ship owned by the Danish shipping company Maersk, picked up 26 men and one woman from a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean on August 5, two days after the refugees had escaped from Libya.
The refugees had contacted the migrant distress hotline operated by the Alarm Phone activist network prior to their rescue.
A society that grows accustomed to ‘undesirable’ people also grows accustomed to undesirable deaths. Minneapolis serves as a wake-up call, including for our own refugee policies, writes MARC VANDEPITTE
