Coherency for boaters, please

The current refugee crisis is real, and it is a global one.

By the end of 2014, an unprecedented number 59.5 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced due to human rights abuse or violations, persecutions or conflict.

Among these, are those fleeing violence from their own country and venturing into the open seas towards other countries in search of refuge.

The open sea is no joke.

Earlier this year, Kevin (a hitch-hiking boy I met from five years ago) visited me in Colombia, and later invited me to sail around the coast of the Atlantic.

He had previously spent his last year hitch-hiking boats, and is now a captain of a sailboat named Marianne.

Despite having absolutely no experience with boats, nor the ability to actually swim, I said yes, and proceeded on a sailing adventure; sometimes in broad daylight, other times at night.

Needless to say, at sea, I am akin to a maladapted seal on a beach, lumbering and clumsy.

On one of our adventures out in the open ocean in a particularly rough wind, while I was on steering duty, I managed to do an accidental gybe; the mainsail flipped, the backstay broke and a huge wave washed over Marianne’s deck and into the sailboat.

Kevin almost got thrown overboard, while at one point I was steering with my both legs propped up and my head under the waves.

Luckily (with no thanks to me), Kevin managed to turn on the motor and safely navigate our way back to shore, though the damage was done.

The backstay, the solar panel system and the VHF radio was damaged and in need of serious repairs.

We proceeded to ask everyone for help.

As travellers, we were never turned away from shore, there were always people willing to help, and even if emergency hits at sea, a quick VHF call would send in an emergency rescue team, all of whom would bend over backwards to help us with what we need.

It is a shame that the same situation cannot be said for boat refugees or migrants, who constantly get turned back by coast guards with just provisions of food and water, and left to fend for themselves in the open sea.

While provisions might on face value seem like an appropriately humane solution, in the context of the open sea it is neither humane nor morally sound.

Every year, tens of thousands of people attempt dangerous sea voyages across seas and oceans, a significant number of which end up stranded or dying at sea due to precarious conditions on the boat and on the waters.

In Southeast Asia, thousands make their way in boats or even attempt to swim to shore for various political or economic reasons, for instance, the Rohingyas fleeing persecution in Myanmar or the impoverished Bangladeshis looking for security.

The scale of this escalating crisis has resulted in a variety of response from individual countries; proactive, but often uncoordinated and incoherent.

For instance, the European Union in May decided to deploy naval forces to destroy migrant boats coming from North Africa.

In the same time period, Malaysia and Indonesia agreed to temporary open its doors to migrants, on the conditions that they would be resettled elsewhere within the timeframe of a year.

On the other hand, Australia is still firm with its policy of turning back boat migrants and ruling out resettlement of refugees.

The incoherency is troubling. Even when some countries decide to relax their immigration regulations, it only provides a moral sense of saving boat migrants and refugees, while in fact all it does is displace the danger away from their shores and the responsibility over to other neighbouring countries.

Coming to terms with the different dimensions and complexity of this human crisis, a coherent response must be found which is compassionate and just, not just by individual countries but together regionally or as an international community.

Otherwise, it simply exacerbates the undue burden upon countries who compassionately decides to liberate immigration policies and open up their shores. – August 25, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.