SAR Coordination

A Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) is a state authority responsible for coordinating search and rescue operations within a defined Search and Rescue Region (SRR). The legal basis is the 1979 International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR Convention), which obliges coastal states to establish and maintain rescue coordination centres capable of receiving distress alerts and coordinating rescue responses within their zones.

The global SAR system divides the world's oceans into SRRs, whose dimensions are precisely defined by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in the Global SAR Plan. Within each SRR, the responsible state is obligated to coordinate and provide search and rescue services. The system aims to ensure full geographical coverage — so that distress cases anywhere in the world can be detected and people in danger rescued.

Different states organise this responsibility differently. Some maintain joint land-and-sea rescue centres, known as JRCCs (Joint Rescue Coordination Centres). Others maintain dedicated maritime centres — MRCCs. Some, like Italy, operate a national coordinating body: the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome (IMRCC), which oversees the Central Mediterranean SAR zone.

When a boat is in distress, the MRCC responsible for that SRR must direct the nearest available vessel — whether state coastguard, merchant ship, or NGO rescue vessel — to the scene. A designated SAR Mission Coordinator (SMC) temporarily assigns on-scene coordination to the assisting ship. The operation is legally concluded only when survivors have been brought ashore at a place of safety. A place of safety must be assessed case by case, taking the principle of non-refoulement into account: a port where people face persecution, torture or arbitrary detention does not qualify. Under this standard, Libya does not qualify as a place of safety.

MRCC Rome (IMRCC) and the failure of coordination

The IMRCC bears primary responsibility for one of the world's most active and deadliest maritime zones. In practice, it has systematically failed to fulfil its legal obligations. Since the creation of the Libyan SAR zone in 2018 — facilitated by the EU and Italy — MRCC Rome has progressively delegated coordination authority to Libyan authorities, reducing its own zone of direct responsibility to a narrow belt around Lampedusa. In the Maltese SAR zone, RCC Malta routinely delays or refuses to coordinate rescues while facilitating pushbacks by proxy.

Frontex aerial surveillance is used to locate boats in distress and pass their coordinates to the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, which intercepts and forces people back to Libya — with the knowledge and often direct coordination of MRCC Rome. This constitutes, in the assessment of CivilMRCC and multiple legal experts, a systematic violation of the duty to rescue, the principle of non-refoulement and international human rights law.

The Civil MRCC: Coordination and documentation platform for people in distress at sea

In direct response to this failure, civil society actors established the Civil Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (CMRCC) — a coordination and documentation platform designed to fill the void left by state authorities. The CMRCC supports the civil rescue fleet, facilitates communication between NGO vessels and the Alarm Phone hotline, documents cases of distress and holds coastal states accountable for their legal obligations. It is not a substitute for state responsibility — it is evidence of its absence.

The following four principles define both the legal framework that states are obliged to uphold — and the framework they are systematically violating:

1. The duty to render assistance at sea Universal and unconditional — binding on all vessels, state or private. UNCLOS Art. 98 and SOLAS Reg. 33 require every shipmaster to proceed at maximum speed to anyone found in distress, regardless of nationality or status. This duty cannot be negated by political considerations, border enforcement mandates or instructions from state authorities.

2. The duty to coordinate SAR operations States are obliged under the SAR Convention to organise and coordinate rescue operations within their zones. Systematic delegation of this duty to the Libyan Coast Guard — an entity known to commit human rights violations — constitutes a breach of this obligation.

3. Place of safety An SAR operation is concluded only when survivors are brought to a place of safety. Libya — where arbitrary detention, torture and exploitation are documented as systematic — does not meet this standard. Coordinating returns to Libya therefore violates international maritime and human rights law.

4. The illegality of EU-Libya cooperation The cooperation between EU institutions, EU member states and Libyan authorities in intercepting and returning people to Libya violates the principle of non-refoulement, the European Convention on Human Rights and the obligations arising from the Hirsi Jamaa ruling (ECtHR, 2012). The ECCHR has filed a communication to the ICC on this basis.

Sources

CivilMRCC: civilmrcc.eu/about/

SOS Méditerranée: "RCC, JRCC, MRCC: die Aufgaben einer Rettungsleitstelle", December 2024 — sosmediterranee.de/aktuelles/rcc-jrcc-mrcc-die-aufgaben-einer-rettungsleitstelle

UNCLOS Art. 98; SOLAS Reg. 33 Chapter V; SAR Convention 1979

ECtHR: Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy, Grand Chamber, 2012

ECCHR: ecchr.eu/en/case/interceptions-of-migrants-and-refugees-at-sea/