The ‘Astral’ boat of the NGO Open Arms dedicated to help migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the Mediterranean, is docked since Monday in the area of es Martell in the port of Vila, where it will remain moored until next Sunday, when it departs. The general public will be able to visit the ship between 16.30 and 18.30 on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, when it will also remain accessible during the morning (from 10.30 to 13.30). Moreover, on Monday Fridays and between 9.30 am and 1.30 pm, it is visited by several schools in Ibiza.
The ship arrived on Monday, after passing through Mallorca, and will sail next Sunday. | J.A. RIERA
Open Arms arrives to the island by the hand of the Conselleria de Asuntos Sociales del Govern, after passing through the port of Palma. With these open days it is intended to carry out a awareness project towards human rights.
The pedagogical manager of Open Arms, Angeles Schjaerexplains that the situation in the Mediterranean “has completely worsened” and, moreover, he denounces that Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party has risen to power in Italy: “It is a party that is bringing out new laws and decrees to curb this migratory phenomenon and criminalize the NGOs that are in charge of protecting people.”
He regrets that Europe in recent years has been investing millions of euros in the “externalization and protection of borders”, but the same investment is not made in protecting human beings who are risking their lives at sea: “We have decided that some people are worth more than others. We saw it with Ukrainewhere humanitarian corridors were created and that we have been talking for a year about just one conflict when there are many more active conflicts that have been going on for more years and are not being talked about.”
He details that during the winter months they have the ship stopped and they take advantage of this opportunity to raise awareness through a pedagogical project called Education for Freedom, with which they try to bring the students closer to this migratory phenomenon: “We talk to them about our work on board, about emigration, empathy and human rights”.
“With the older ones we make a part of geopolitical context and we explain why people are risking their lives in this way. We also talked about self-responsibility, because we want to find the light at the end of the tunnel, we can all do something and move to make it change,” adds Schjaer.
In the summer, on the other hand, they do sail and prepare for missions. For this reason, when they finish this route around the Balearic Islands, the ship will prepare to leave from mission in the central Mediterraneanin these seven and a half years we have rescued 66,000 people, we have to take into account that we are a very small NGO that works with 90% of volunteers. The ‘Astral’ saved 15,000 people in four months, imagine what we could do if the states had got their act together,” he said.
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