migration doesn't stop
tragedy is happening daily so who is
left to pick up these people at sea
they could have bought ferrari's yachts
whatever but they decided to take that
money
and put it in the boiling out into the
ocean and picking up people who are
drowning watch out sit down
it's not a crazy investment if you think
that you save all these people all this
life i think it would be too easy for
some people just to write checks
for someone else to do what is
definitely a core function of the state
just because you're the smartest guy in
the room doesn't mean that you're trying
to make a profit every moment
the search for hundreds of migrants is
underway
dozens have been confirmed dead sparking
fears for what could become the
mediterranean's deadliest known migrant
sea disaster
this spring the migrant crisis in the
mediterranean made international
headlines when a ship carrying 700
migrants
capsized during a botched rescue attempt
what are officials doing now to save the
lives of migrants trying to cross the
mediterranean and are they doing enough
the tragedy drew the world's attention
to a problem nobody seems to want to
solve
because solving it means bringing even
more migrants into the european union
but doing nothing isn't an option either
because it means
thousands of people will drown in the
sea at europe's doorstep
over two thousand have drowned this year
alone
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in the face of government inaction one
private organization has stepped in to
provide assistance to the thousands of
people fleeing conflict
and economic hardship in the middle east
and africa
it's called migrant offshore aid station
or moaz
and it was founded by a 33 year old
american millionaire
and his italian wife moaz is unique
because it's doing what you would expect
a country's navy or a coast guard to do
it's a ship that literally cruises the
sea looking for distressed boats to
rescue
so i gotta find norris right mm-hmm meet
chris catcher and bone
chris made his fortune servicing
insurance claims for military
contractors
during the american wars in iraq and
afghanistan
we were paid to go and rescue people now
we're paying to go and rescue
people this is chris's wife regina
she says she got the idea from moaz when
she was on a cruise with chris in the
mediterranean
we spot a flooding jacket was a winter
jacket in the water
this jacket belonged probably to one of
the person
that didn't make it so my husband
started to search the market to find the
boat
that could fulfill the need of our
mission she's a former fishing trawler
they used to keep her catch a fish down
below so we've got quite a bit of room
here
it's called phoenix and chris spared no
cost in tricking it out with
state-of-the-art toys
from the military-class drones to the
top of the line communications
technology
to the navy seal style rescue boats moaz
also invited the medical charity doctors
without borders to perform medical aid
from an onboard infirmary
they contributed 1.7 million euros and 6
tons of medical supplies
so what's this this is the belize flag
this is the flag that we fly on phoenix
flag of convenience no it's a flag of
acceptance i think
it's like a i'm a whiter guy and a
blacker guy on here so it kind of makes
sense for phoenix
we pay taxes in our countries they go to
the navy
and they go to the coast guard shouldn't
these organizations which have a much
wider reach than an ngo like yours
be doing these jobs in a professional
manner
um they are doing the job in a
professional manner but it's not enough
we feel that we are a needed plug at the
moment because there's nothing else out
there
moaz operates out of malta a tiny island
nation of four hundred thousand people
which sits at the front lines of the
mediterranean migrant crisis
this year alone seventy thousand people
have boarded unsea-worthy boats
and set sail from the libyan coast with
not much more than a prayer
and a heading smugglers usually don't
even give them enough fuel to reach the
eu
so if the boats aren't rescued it could
mean a death sentence
that's where moaz comes in but its
emergence raises the question
of whether contractors could play a role
in search and rescue
moaz told us that they were ready to
accept government funding
so could the eu simply pay moaz to do
the work
that's politically unpopular we wanted
to gauge how ready countries of the eu
were to move in that direction
so we spoke to malta's prime minister no
problem
projects like moaz are in some ways
plugging the gap left by the eu
government
do you see private companies or
individuals or ngos
taking on more of this burden in the
future perhaps even being funded by
the european union to do this job for
them
look i think that what private
individuals do
in order to give a signal is very
important
but i for one think that states
should not abdicate their
responsibilities on
this issue definitely so whatever
resources private companies or ngos
would devote
to all this it should not be an excuse
for
any government not to do anything in the
same way that uh
you know the united states government
outsourced a large part of its military
operation in iraq to
private companies it isn't the
the the best of comparisons when you
compare the results that
was were achieved in iraq no but it
seems like it's heading that way with
the government's not doing anything
private individuals are coming into the
picture
and they're already planning their
expansion and hoping for
um aid from the governments when it
comes to
um saving lives and the crucial role
of security and safety at sea
i think it would be too easy for some
people just to write checks
for someone else to do what is
definitely
a core function of the state so far it
seems like the only ones writing any
checks are private citizens
chris and regina have committed eight
million dollars of their own money
and profits from their company tangiers
group to make mo as a reality
we're gonna go visit the tangiers office
it's chris
and regina's company which is a
multi-million dollar
global operation but it's based here in
malta the company is essentially a
medical insurance business
that caters to clients in far-flung and
dangerous places
i come from these booths yeah it's very
nice hill booths and christopher
come from these other boats it's more
like a snow boots
louisiana yes it's a different booth
chris told me that you spent eight
million dollars so far
on the moaz project it's a really crazy
investment
no it's not a crazy investment if you
think that to save all these people all
this
life is not a crazy investment
we did what we could do with our
resources i wish i have
more moaz saved three thousand lives
last year when it launched
and this year it's already saved over
five thousand
so what's the eu been doing in 2014
italy shut down its costly search and
rescue program mara nostrum
because the eu refused to fund it then
over 1700 people died in early 2015
according to amnesty international
when moe's launched for a second season
in may it was pretty much the only game
in town
private initiative probably can come up
with ideas and concepts faster than the
eu government can
robert young pelton is a writer steering
moaz's pr campaign
he's contributed some stories to vice in
the past and is the founder of migrant
report
which tracks the movement of migrants
across the mediterranean
the volume is startling to europe
because they're just now starting to see
thousands and thousands of people in the
sea so
it's an education process for europe and
it's not going to stop
and that's why it's such a touchy
subject for european politicians
the fact is immigration is unpopular
do you see you know governments maybe
hiring moas or groups like it
um to take the political risk off of
their hands so that the rescue goes to
professionals
and provide it as a service yeah i think
i think
the way things should work is that
individuals should look at something
and say i can fix that and then secondly
people
other individuals should look at that
and say i like what he's doing i think
governments are at the tail end of the
decision chain
governments are risk adverse governments
look at polls they're not about to
go out in the limb and do something
arbitrarily
what he's doing is very humanitarian so
there's a difference between saying oh i
want to end malaria so i'm going to
spend millions of dollars
coming up with ideas but you don't end
malaria he's actually saving people's
lives so last year he there's 3 000
people on this planet that will exist
this year that may not have existed last
year so direct action is really the most
fundamental
uh force for change you know people
look at that and say wow you know that
guy thinks
deeply enough about that to commit his
own resource from funds we're going to
slowly take you about 10 at a time over
to the other ship
okay what we've done here is really
venture philanthropy because we've taken
risk we went into a different area to
prove a concept
of course we're not going to really find
any eu government that just jumps over
the fence and decides that
a private initiative is better than the
state initiative so we can at least get
initially them to recognize that we were
successful and that this concept can be
possibly taken on at an eu level it's
completely humanitarian so i think that
that is a potential solution that europe
can look at
saying hey we can sort of outsource this
to an ngo
what did the u.s do when they went into
iraq
they outsourced something that was
controversial to people that they could
just throw the blame on later on
chris would know he worked with
contractors during the wars in iraq and
afghanistan
it's only recently that he started
personally pulling children out of the
water
and promoting the rescues online and by
the way
yes i might be the smartest guy in the
room and you know what i'll be happy to
talk about it and to advocate
for this problem continuously because i
am the smartest guy in the room but just
because
you're the smartest guy in the room
doesn't mean that you're trying to make
a profit every minute
every moment and moas is only going to
continue to grow and until we're not
needed anymore and that day that we're
not needed
is the day that nobody is dying at sea
anymore
since the moaz operation began this
spring it's helped keep the migrant
issue on the agenda
by generating a number of news reports
about
need boats its there to save lives to
pick people out of the water
that should be the first priority and
with the headline grabbing tragedies of
the early summer
the eu has had to take note it finally
expanded its border patrol operations
to areas near the libyan coast where
most rescues have to take place
they've already picked up 65 000 people
out of the sea over the course of the
summer
moaz has rescued far fewer people about
5 000 this year
but it's played an important role in
getting the message out about the crisis
and until the turmoil in the middle east
and africa ends
the crisis is likely to persist which
means that there will be room on the
high seas for activists and governments
alike
for a long time to come
[Music]
you