Where There is No Safe Haven
However, no safe haven was to be found.
Earlier this year there was a situation involving the gas carrier Castor, which a near fatal deckplate crack in mid-voyage and was denied safe harbor for fear of a potential environmental disaster.
Maritime organizations are speaking out on the Tampa matter loud and clear, as BIMCO noted in a news release: “The international community has chosen to ignore international protocols and regulations regarding the safe and timely disembarkment of such refugees ... Moreover, forcing a vessel to continue navigation whilst burdened with such a large number of people on board, for which she is neither designed nor equipped, is a reckless disregard of the stipulations incorporated into SOLAS.”
The Center for Seafarers Rights (CSR) of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York & New Jersey perhaps put it best: “A cherished and protected maritime tradition is a mariners' obligation to go to the aid of all persons in distress at sea, without regard to their nationality, status or religion," said Douglas B. Stevenson, Director of the Center for Seafarers' Rights in a letter to the Australian Prime Minister and the Ambassador to the United States. "We are very concerned that no actions be taken by any state that might create a disincentive for vessels to respond to a distress at sea. Australia's detention of the M/V Tampa and refusal to accept the shipwreck survivors places an unreasonable financial burden on the ship and establishes a negative precedent for those masters and shipowners to comply with their moral and legal obligation to rescue persons in distress at sea."