MSF and Jugent Rettet do not sign NGO code of conduct

Save the Children and MOAS do, 'we will continue to save lives'

ANSAmed

31 July 2017

ROME - Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the German Jugend Rettet did not sign a ''code of conduct'' on Monday proposed by Italian officials for all NGOs involved in migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean. Save the Children and the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) instead signed it. ''Our mission has always been that of saving the most lives possible at sea and this document enables us to continue doing so,'' MOAS founder Christopher Catrambone said on the sidelines of the meeting at the Italian interior ministry.

Save the Children's Valerio Neri said that most of the points in the code ''indicate things we already do and clarifications have been provided on a couple of points that we were concerned about, and so we don't have any qualms about signing it.'' ''We are convinced,'' he added, ''that we did the right thing and I am sorry that other NGOs did not follow us.'' The Italian chief of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Gabriele Eminente, ''all the non-problematic points of the code will be complied with as we have always done. We appreciated the constructive approach of the ministry, but the document does not underscore that our aim is to save lives, and there are two points that we cannot agree to sign on to: police onboard and the possible ban on transboarding onto other ships of the people rescued.''

Source: http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/libya/2017/07/31/msf-and-jugent-rettet-do-not-sign-ngo-code-of-conduct_4b038fbc-8c50-4e0d-af4a-8252a74a8d28.html