The far-right and Katie Hopkins need to learn some basic truths about those ‘easy to hail as an Uber’ rescue boats in the Med

Researchers examined whether the number of migrants crossing the Med fell when the EU cut back rescue operations. The decision had no effect on numbers, but it did mean more bodies washed up on beaches

A ship chartered by Defend Europe, a group of far-right activists, is about to set sail across the Mediterranean to disrupt the search and rescue operations of charities which are saving the lives of migrants making the world’s most perilous journey – the route from Libya to Italy.

The intervention of the anti-immigrant, so-called “identitarians” who are heading for Sicily to make political capital out of human misery is not only misguided but threatens to cost lives.

My concern is all the more acute because Save the Children, of which I’m chief executive in the UK, operates one of the vessels that Defend Europe has set out to confront. The crew of our ship, the Vos Hestia, which is based in the Sicilian port of Catania, have helped to save 7,090 lives since the start of the year, including 1,134 children.

The youngest to have been rescued so far was a 15-month-old girl called Blessing who was hauled out of a sinking dinghy. Tragically, her mother drowned – one of more than 7,000 who have died on such journeys in the central Mediterranean in the last two years.

In the eyes of Defend Europe we are part of the problem. The Independent quoted the group as saying it intended to “monitor” our actions because charities had facilitated human trafficking by effectively ferrying migrants to Italy.

Katie Hopkins, the Mail Online columnist, who spent time with the group, took to social media to criticise our work. She tweeted, ‘These rescue boats are as easy to hail as an Uber after a big night out in Birmingham’ and tracked the movement of our boat on her feed – implying that our crew purposefully waited in the water to pick up migrants.

What she failed to take into account was that our ship has no direct radio contact with migrants’ boats. We move either when our crew spot a stricken vessel or when we are ordered into action by the Italian coastguard.

A statement on the Defend Europe’s website declares that picking up migrants off the Libyan coast presents a “pull-factor”, encouraging people to chance the treacherous Mediterranean voyage and flood into Europe. The self-styled maritime crusaders want to “stop the boats” and cooperate with the Libyan coastguard to send people “back to Africa”.

These arguments are not confined to the assorted racists and extreme right wingers gathered under the Defend Europe banner. The idea that search and rescue operations create a “pull factor” is common currency across many European governments. Indeed, it helps to explain why Italy gets so little support from other countries to cope with the influx of migrants, which is approaching 100,000 this year alone.

So, does the “pull factor” argument bear scrutiny? Are we encouraging vulnerable migrants to take risks they would otherwise avoid? At a migrant reception centre in Rome I met Saimon, a 16 year-old Eritrean boy. He had been rescued at sea in May after a vessel crammed with 800 migrants capsized. More than 30 people drowned.

This article was first published on the Independent’s website, 26 July 2017