Anabel Montes, after 7 years rescuing immigrants in the Mediterranean: "I have suffered post-traumatic stress, in the end you break"

More than 25,000 people have died in the Mediterranean since 2014 trying to reach European shores, a humanitarian tragedy that is still far from receding and that Anabel Montes from Asturias has experienced firsthand: she has spent more than seven years rescuing immigrants in the Aegean and in what is considered the deadliest migratory route in the world, the Central Mediterranean.

“Unfortunately I have seen many people die, men, women and also too many children. And the situation has not changed in all these years, if anything for the worse due to the obstacles that civil organizations find ourselves in carrying out rescues at sea,” laments Montes, who in recent years has been the mission leader of the Doctors Without Borders in the Central Mediterranean, aboard the Geo Barents ship.

His NGO and the rest of the organizations that work in the area, where almost 80% of the deaths of immigrants in the Mediterranean occur, denounce that the Italian government forces them to sail to distant ports in northern Italy to disembark immigrants, ” contravening international navigation regulations”, which require offering the closest safe port. “A week ago we carried out a rescue in the very south of Italy, between Sicily and Libya, and they made us disembark in the port of La Spezia, near Genoa.. There are various complaints about this matter,” he recalls.

Another obstacle they encounter is that Italy offers them a very quick landing port so they can leave the area as soon as possible: “They assign you a safe port immediately to get the ship out as quickly as possible and prevent you from doing more than one rescue , but when you are before a boat in distress there is no law or national power that can prevent you from rescuing those people. In fact, the captain could be charged with failing to help if he doesn't.”

More complicated is the situation in Malta, a country that humanitarian organizations denounce for preventing rescues at sea. “It is proven that Malta instructs merchant ships in the vicinity of vessels in distress to continue their voyage without rescuing or simply to stand by without doing anything.. All this with the intention of preventing the arrival of migrants to their country. These unnecessary obstacles and delays deliberately endanger the lives of thousands of people,” said Doctors Without Borders.

It is proven that Malta instructs merchant ships to continue their voyage without rescuing vessels in distress.”

Montes goes further and condemns the “murderous indifference” on the part of the Maltese government: “Nobody talks about Malta and it seems aberrational to me that no European state takes that government before the Hamburg Tribunal for the Rights of the Sea.”

But the worst is when the NGO boats confront the Libyan coast guard, who have come to use live ammunition to dissuade them, according to the activist: “They are financed by the European Union to monitor their borders and they have hit us in several warnings occasions, overhead warning shots. I experienced the most serious moment on board a rescue boat, approaching a boat in danger, when they started shooting at us above our heads with a machine gun.”

24 hour guards on the ship

Montes explains that life on board a rescue ship in the Mediterranean is one of permanent tense calm: “Every day is the same and everyone is different. Life is very routine because we always do the same thing, 24-hour surveillance guards from the command bridge and a lot of training. But when the rescue arrives, you never know what you're going to find or how things are going to happen, it's a permanent uncertainty.”

The real drama begins when the time comes for the rescue in the face of a shipwreck or a boat in danger: “Many times they have already lost their lives when we arrive, many inside the boat itself in which they sail. I have seen highly overloaded inflatable boats, with 80 people in a cabin for 40, where if a person fell to the ground they could not get up again due to lack of space and they drowned in the bottom of the boat itself, among the fluids of the people, gasoline and sea water”.

He stresses that it is common for some migrants to pass out on the Doctors Without Borders ship after the rescue when they first feel safe: “They have been through so much stress and panic for so long that it is quite common for them to lose consciousness when we disembark them on board, It's because of the feeling of being safe after so much suffering, they reach the limit”.

Four sisters running away from cutting alone

Regarding the profile of the immigrant, he affirms that the range is very wide because they come from many parts of Africa and the Middle East. “There are people fleeing from dictatorships like the one in Eritrea, from armed conflicts like the one in Sudan or from ethnic conflicts. There are also LGTBI people or women fleeing domestic violence.. any desperate person whose life is in danger and cannot find another solution. There are many young people of 18 or 19 years old and a high percentage of children, some traveling alone because they have lost their family during the trip,” he says, recalling that many immigrants have been traveling through Africa for years when they reach the coast of Libya, from where most boats depart.

There are many personal stories that have left a mark on Anabel's heart, but she remembers one in particular: “There were four sisters, the eldest 16 years old and the youngest 8, who had fled the Ivory Coast alone because the eldest had been performed an ablation and to prevent them from doing it to the three little. Their uncles gave them money to escape and they crossed half the African continent alone to Libya.. They had done all kinds of tricks on them and when you see them there alone in the boat you think, but what is this? There is absolutely nothing that can justify hate towards these girls.”

However, all the stories have a common denominator, the mafias: “Many tried to emigrate legally, but could not. And when despair is total, the only way they have is to pay the mafias, who take advantage of their misery to do business”. Montes points out that they are “violent and cruel groups that extort the victims and their relatives” to get as much money as possible: “Some have paid 3,000 euros, others 5,000 and some 1,000 euros because they did not have more money and despite having been tortured they did not They could get more out of them.”

Rejects accusations of creating 'call effect'

Activists who rescue immigrants in the Mediterranean are used to hearing criticism of their work and even accusations of promoting illegal immigration and creating a 'pull effect', opinions that Montes completely rejects: “It is a defamation. The first NGOs appeared because people died at sea, not the other way around. And it has been shown that when the NGOs do not operate, the boats continue leaving, with the only difference that people die at sea.”

In this sense, he calls on the European Union to establish “safe ways” so that immigrants stop dying in the Mediterranean: “The issue of their regularization can be discussed, but always on land, not at sea. The first thing is to establish safe routes so they don't have to risk their lives.”. And he gives the case of Ukraine as an example: “Of course the Ukrainian refugees need our help, but it has been shown that there are double standards. What has been done with the Ukrainian refugees shows that Europe has the capacity to receive and establish safe routes”.

A well deserved break after years at sea

After seven and a half years rescuing immigrants and living with human tragedy, Anabel Montes has just announced that she is returning to Spain to rest from a very hard job that has nearly cost her her health, as she fell into depression and has suffered post-traumatic stress. Like many of his peers.

“It is a job that weighs a lot on an emotional level. These 7 and a half years have seemed like 20 to me, with 24-hour work rhythms and very high stress levels in very tough situations.. In the end, no matter how strong you think you are, I am a human person.. I endured a lot, but the pain accumulates like a pressure cooker and when I broke, it was very hard,” recalls Montes, who has also endured all kinds of insults and threats on social networks: “I have seen a lot of hate. They have called me everything, the most undesirable thing you could wish for a person.”

I've seen a lot of hate. They have called me everything, even the most undesirable thing you can wish on a person”

Although it took a lot of effort, she has already overcome her depression and is ready to start a new life, without ruling out her return to the sea in the future: “I have been lucky to have my family, my partner and a circle of friends close by who They have given me love and affection. Then it has also been necessary a very strong and painful work on a personal level, accompanied by a psychiatrist. It took me a long time, but right now I feel happy, although I am aware that I probably still have some traumas in there.”

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Competitive swimmer, Anabel Montes (36 years old) is a certified rescue swimmer with helicopter module; low visibility rescue training, fast rescue boat handling and is a yacht skipper. She worked with Open Arms on the Greek island of Lesbos and was currently responsible for search and rescue on the Doctors Without Borders vessel Geo Barents in the Central Mediterranean. She has rescued thousands of migrants in Mediterranean waters.

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