The continuity of the NGO Open Arms at risk due to serious damage on the boat

The continuity of the Catalan NGO Proactiva Open Arms is at risk. This is what the founder, Òscar Camps, asserted after identifying a serious damage on the boat. Camps asks for help in order to face a definitive repair of the tug or to be able to buy a new one, since nowadays both situations are economically unbearable for the NGO.

Camps claims that for two and a half years they have invested in small and continued repairs in a boat that is already 47 years old. “When it was handed over to us, the boat was going to be dismantled and we had to make great efforts to get it operational”, Camps explains from Open Arms by phone, with 118 people on board rescued in the central Mediterranean.

“All this is happening because definitive repairs are unconceivable”, Camps regrets. The NGO does not reach the required volume of donations needed to restore the Open Arms or to pay for the purchase of a new boat. For this reason, Camps is asking civil society for help to obtain sufficient donations. “If 200,000 people could give between 10 and 20 euros, we could make it”, he says.

If the required donations are not reached, Camps assures that the continuity of the NGO is at risk. “If the citizenship really wants our efforts to be continued, we need more resources”, the founder of Open Arms notes and adds that “we give our time, out attitude and the risk, but we cannot particularly sustain a high cost repair”.

Open Arms is waiting to receive orders to disembark the rescued people at a port from where they will have to rethink the situation. For now, mechanics are working to repair the engine failure, offshore and in adverse conditions.

If you wish to make a donation to help Proactiva Open Arms continue its work, you will find all the information here.