Floating sanctuaries: The ethics of search and rescue at sea

Abstract Search-and-Rescue NGOs in the Mediterranean have been increasingly criminalized. This criminalization has chilled conversation about ethical dilemmas practitioners face. What, if any, can be adverse byproducts of rescuing life at sea? In this article, we concentrate on involved search and rescue (SAR) as rescuers described them. Our aim is two-fold. The first to offer a phenomenological account search-and-rescue dilemmas. article sheds light complexity nuance landscape maritime rescue, revealing an intricate web interactions acknowledged by posing challenges. second conceptual framework for what it that SAR are, fact, doing. We contextualize their actions within larger terrain ‘border externalization’, which states moved enforcement activities extraterritorial zones, where human rights law diluted or inapplicable. thus argue set norms underlying NGO practices amounts strategy counter-externalization. ideal here window opportunity created sea, international protections more broadly apply, but powers are suspended. By utilizing these legal gray zones benefit migrants, effectively turn from spaces lawlessness into resistance. ship becomes ‘floating sanctuary’.