A rich American and his Italian wife are on a mission to save migrants in the Mediterranean
Its mission? Rescue migrants making the perilous journey from Africa to Europe.
"I love the adventure and challenge of tackling tough problems to help people make it through impossible situations," Chris Catrambone, a self-made entrepreneur, humanitarian, and adventurer, writes on his blog.
Today the Phoenix is making its second major rescue voyage. With a crew of 20 including two doctors and a nurse, the vessel is well equipped to help the migrants they are likely to find fleeing Africa across the Mediterranean. The boat also has hundreds of gallons of water, hundreds of life jackets, a cook, and two drones equipped with camcorders that will be used to find distressed migrants, Catrambones told CNN.
Catrambone added that the expedition will cost his family roughly $445,000 per month.
So how did this American businessman end up saving migrants off the coast of Africa?
REUTERS/MOAS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/Handout via Reuters Migrants on board the NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix sit on the deck as the ship arrives at the port of Pozzallo in Sicily in this handout photo provided by MOAS October 5, 2014.According to CNN, it all started last summer when Catrambone and his Italian wife Regina were vacationing on a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean and spotted a winter jacket from a migrant who had probably died in the water."Here we were in this nice boat, when the migrants, people like us, are attempting to cross because there's a war in their country," Regina told CNN. "These people are dying at Europe's door. We have an ethical and moral obligation to do something."With this memory in mind, as well as the 2013 migrant tragedy in Lampedusa, the Catrambone's bought the 431 ton Phoenix and formed the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), which spent last August through October pulling some 3,000 migrants out of the Mediterranean, according to VICE News. REUTERS/MOAS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/Handout via Reuters A group of 104 sub-Saharan Africans on board a rubber dinghy begin to climb aboard the NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) ship Phoenix some 25 miles off the Libyan coast in this handout photo provided by MOAS October 4, 2014. Citizen efforts like that of the Catrambone's couldn't come at a better time, as Europe is expecting the busiest migrant season in history this summer. So far, 1600 people have died making the journey from Africa to Europe, compared to 96 deaths this time last year, CNN reports.The EU border agency Frontex has also proven to be ineffective in slowing the death rate of those crossing the Mediterranean. Last year, MOAS saved nearly 3,000 lives in 60 days," Chris Catrambone wrote on his blog. "Equipped with experience, the latest technology and an adherence to the highest safety standards, we will save more lives this year than ever."