This sequence of articles attracts on a 12 months of study carried out on board the Ocean Viking, the civilian search-and-rescue send operated within the central Mediterranean via the NGO SOS Méditerranée. It explores the views of exiled other people in response to testimonies from 110 survivors who have been picked up whilst making an attempt the crossing from North Africa, in addition to team contributors’ reports and the researcher’s ingenious collaborations whilst onboard the send.
That is the primary of a four-part sequence. Learn section two right here, and discover an immersive French-language model of the sequence right here.
‘The journey we’ve undertaken’
“We were ready to jump. We were so afraid the Libyans would arrive!” Those phrases got here from a tender Syrian guy, recorded within the information desk as a part of my year-long find out about aboard the Ocean Viking search-and-rescue send, between the summers of 2023 and 2024.
His phrases didn’t replicate an remoted incident. A number of the 110 rescued individuals who took section within the onboard survey, just about a 3rd described a identical worry on the sight of a boat at the horizon. Now not worry of approaching shipwreck or drowning, however of being intercepted via Libyan forces and returned to that nation.
Portrait of Shakir.
Morgane Dujmovic, Fourni par l’auteur
The phrases echo the ones of Shakir, a Bangladeshi guy I met at the OV – because the Ocean Viking send is usually nicknamed. He advised me: “You refreshed our minds with the workshops. Since Libya and the sea, we felt lost. Now, we understand the journey that we’ve undertaken.”
At the OV’s deck and within the boxes serving as shelters till disembarkation in Italy, I presented participatory mapping workshops. Round 60 other people took section, retracing the stairs, puts and timelines in their trips via hand-drawn maps.
I advanced this collaborative analysis strategy to inspire the expression of data shaped via migration. I had now not expected that those gestures and drawings may additionally lend a hand reclaim issues of reference and construct treasured working out concerning the adventure undertaken.
Portrait of Koné.
Morgane Dujmovic, Fourni par l’auteur
The phrases additionally resonate with the ones I gathered after a disembarkation in Ancona. There, I met Koné, an Ivorian guy who were rescued via some other NGO vessel every week previous. He advised me:
“The worst is not the sea, believe me, it’s the desert! When you go out on the water, it’s at night and you don’t see what’s around you – it’s only when daylight comes that you see the waves. In the desert, they put 50 people on a pickup truck made for ten: if you fall, you’re left behind. At sea, you die instantly. In the desert, you die a slow death.”
These kinds of phrases have led me to reconsider my assumptions about borders and their risks. Why take the chance of crossing the ocean, with such unsure results? How is rescue perceived from a ship in misery? What’s lifestyles like all over the times spent onboard an NGO vessel? What hopes are projected directly to arriving in Europe, and past?
Whilst rescues and shipwrecks regularly make headlines, the perceptions of the rescued other people themselves are hardly ever studied; they typically succeed in us filtered via government, newshounds or NGOs. Amassing those lived reports and permitting exiled other people to inform their very own tales – this used to be the core goal of my onboard analysis challenge.
When maps inform tales of exile, with Morgane Dujmovic. French-language video via The Dialog France, 2025.
An improvised, floating laboratory
Onboard the OV, I occupied the “25th seat”, which is typically reserved for particular visitors. This used to be the send’s first search-and-rescue (SAR) challenge to host an exterior researcher.
For SOS Méditerranée, it used to be a chance to open the NGO’s paintings as much as goal statement via a social scientist and to refine its operational reaction, drawing at the priorities expressed via rescued folks. A number of the team, a number of contributors advised this paintings may reinforce their practices and deepen their working out of the migration trips that they had been witnessing for years.
The Ocean Viking docked within the Sicilian port of Syracuse.
Morgane Dujmovic, Fourni par l’auteur
This used to be the case for Charlie, one of the vital NGO veterans who’ve spent a decade refining their rescue ways for boats in misery. As SAR staff chief, he coordinates the RHIBs (rigid-hulled inflatable boats) introduced from the OV to hold out rescues. “This work is really useful because we are constantly looking to improve,” he advised me. “What I’m really curious about is what happens before [the rescue]. I talk with them sometimes, but I want to know more about them.”
As for me, whilst I’ve labored for 15 years with exiled other people, this used to be the primary time I’ve written about borders whilst being bodily within a border zone – a sense of immersion heightened via the horizon of the ocean and the confined day by day lifestyles onboard the OV.
Crusing against the operations zone.
Morgane Dujmovic, Fourni par l’auteur
The find out about opened up over the direction of 5 rotations, each and every a six-week challenge within the search-and-rescue zone. It used to be carried out with the give a boost to of all of the OV team: rescue, clinical, coverage, logistics and communications groups – all of whom have been skilled within the survey technique.
The questionnaire emerged from a discussion between clinical and operational targets. It used to be designed round 3 issues: the ocean rescue itself; care onboard the mothership within the post-rescue section; and migration tasks and pathways – from the rustic of foundation to the imagined locations in Europe. My presence on board allowed me to refine the preliminary model as I won comments from each rescued other people and team contributors.
A mapping workshop held at the deck of the OV.
Morgane Dujmovic, Fourni par l’auteur
This used to be complemented via qualitative strategies I’ve in the past used on land, on the French-Italian and French-Spanish borders or within the Balkans, providing individuals who move them participatory and emotional mapping equipment to relate their trips.
To conform those the way to the ocean, I introduced on board the OV maps in the past drawn via different exiled other people together with ingenious fabrics, and organized a devoted area. On this improvised, floating laboratory, I sought to create a space-time conducive to mirrored image, permitting silenced wisdom to emerge and be shared with the broader public – for many who wanted to.
The invitation to take part used to be designed to be reassuring and inspiring. The workshop used to be guided and required no explicit language or graphic talents; the classy end result mattered not up to the interplay skilled all over the mapping procedure.
When maps inform tales of exile, with Morgane Dujmovic. French-language video via The Dialog France, 2025.
Those clinical and moral considerations intently aligned with operational priorities – all over the times of navigation ahead of disembarking at an Italian port, there’s a wish to fill the ready time and raise spirits.
At the OV’s deck, mapping step by step discovered its position amongst post-rescue actions, a few of which had a psychosocial measurement aimed toward restoring the distinction of rescued other people and getting ready them for the following level in their adventure in Europe. The collective mappings – the place texts and drawings gave the impression – turned into a shared language and gesture, linking team contributors and rescued individuals who joined the workshop.
Learn section two of this four-part sequence right here, and discover the immersive French-language model of the sequence right here.
A mapping workshop held at the deck of the OV.
Morgane Dujmovic, Fourni par l’autrice
