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The Current Transcript for April 23, 2018

Host: Anna Maria Tremonti

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Listen to the full episode

Prologue

[Music: Theme]

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE 1: For the next hour with sinking hearts people are transferred from the rubber boat to the Libyan ship. One by one they line up along the deck rail looking in our direction. Then the ship gets smaller and smaller.

ANNA MARIA TREMONTI: More than a decade of coverage on the flow of migrants toward Italy didn't prepare journalist Megan Williams for the scene she just described as people already in the sea and the rafts that were supposed to take them to a new life in Europe were intercepted and forced back to their Libyan jailers Megan Williams boarded a rescue ship in the Mediterranean to document the stories of people on that precarious journey toward the Italian coast and the safety of Europe. She witnessed the helplessness of people turned back the kindness of those doing their best to pull people to safety and the despair of one particular doctor so overwhelmed after treating hundreds of people that he couldn't go back.

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE 1: I didn't even take two steps on deck and I just broke down crying. I tried to hide behind the stairs and a few people came to comfort me. I just left it, I just let them out and I kept crying.

AMT: Today we're devoting our second and third half hours to Megan's reporting on that ship, the people she met, what she saw. You've heard the statistics but this will help you understand the humanity. She's got a riveting documentary and we'll bring it to you in half an hour. But before we get there…

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE 1: Use of the atom has resulted in the accumulation of hazardous radioactive wastes in many areas. For the safety of everyone, the wastes must be controlled.

AMT: Concerns around the disposal and storage of nuclear waste have been raised for decades, but they are in sharp relief right now. How concerned should we be? I'm Anna Maria Tremonti. This The Current.

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Nuclear waste disposal in Canada is 'an accident waiting to happen,' says Indigenous leader

Guests: Patrick Madahbee, David Shoesmith

AMT: Canada has been producing nuclear materials since the 1940s, starting with nuclear isotopes for medicine and research, then moving on to nuclear power. When it comes nuclear waste and questions about how to dispose of it each proposal comes with its own controversy. The National Research Universal Reactor at Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories — a research facility Northwest of Ottawa — closed at the end of March after six decades. Nuclear waste from the reactor and other projects that continue at the site need a home. Some of it is being shipped to South Carolina for disposal — worrying people who live close to the trucking route. There are also plans for a permanent nuclear disposal site in Chalk River itself — worrying environmentalists over how close it is to the Ottawa River. In Kincardine, Ontario, plans for a multibillion dollar nuclear waste storage bunker have been on hold for years as communities have discussed the impacts of the project. Now, governments are looking for local Indigenous groups to give their approval. Today, Indigenous leaders are in New York raising their concerns about nuclear waste disposal, as the United Nations holds a session of its Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Patrick Madahbee is the grand council chief of the Anishinabek Nation in North Bay, Ontario. He is in New York City. Hello.

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Good morning.

AMT: Let's start with nuclear waste coming out of Chalk River. What are your concerns?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Well a couple things. First of all you mentioned the transportation of this stuff. There was a spill on January 5th at the Montreal River where a tractor trailer jackknifed and another truck plowed into it and a spill unit was called. We will never know what seeped into the water system or onto the land there. This is the danger we have with transporting the stuff. There have been accidents. Last year you heard of an accident from the Kingston area where some hazardous materials, people got killed. You know this is a dangerous situation. I don't know if you would be concerned if a vehicle came and crashed around your area and contaminated the whole area and made it uninhabitable.

AMT: OK well hang on; people got killed by radioactive waste in that accident?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: It was the hazardous waste in that particular case. But I am just giving that as an example.

AMT: OK hazardous, but not nuclear waste.

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Nuclear waste is even worse.

AMT: OK, but we're talking about nuclear waste.

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Yes. I am just using that as an example of a tractor trailer crashing.

AMT: OK and you just gave another example in Montreal with seepage that was nuclear? Was that nuclear waste?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: That was low-grade nuclear waste that was being transported to a facility [unintelligible] low grade uranium. So those accidents do happen. And I mean what do you think has been in the news for the last several weeks? An accident involving a tractor trailer. You know you start transporting this stuff through various territories; human nature is such that there's bound to be accidents somewhere. I mean it's like rolling a dice?

AMT: But hang on we're talking about nuclear waste transporting, you're talking about the death of hockey players in Humboldt.

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Well I'm talking about transporting not with a tractor trailer is what I'm talking about.

[Crosstalk]

AMT: And you are saying they are as vulnerable as anyone else on the road?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Tankers have accidents all the time.

AMT: Which tankers? Nuclear waste tankers?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Yes. Tankers. What you have to understand, again, this is a manmade transportation vehicle and tractor trailers pulling a tanker have accidents. That's what this is. It's a large tanker.

AMT: So your concerns are over the very fact that there are transport trucks on the road that get in accidents and you're saying...

PATRICK MADAHBEE: I'm concerned if they're going to be transporting nuclear waste in a tanker truck around many different routes. If there ever was an accident there would be serious consequences. I'm also talking about the storage of stuff right beside a water body.

AMT: OK let's stick with transport for a minute because Canadian Nuclear Laboratories says the disposal plan is safe and in terms of transport of nuclear waste it says "radioactive material has been transported safely, nationally, and internationally over 45 years by road, rail, water, and air without a single radiological incident. It is a highly regulated activity that must meet stringent requirements." What do you say to that?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Well you know there was never an actual until the big accident happened in Fukushima. There was never an accident before when they've had accidents with nuclear plants around the world. You could say that there has never been an accident. Are you prepared to gamble the lives of millions of people if there was an accident and tractor trailers or transport vehicles are going through populated areas?

AMT: OK so now you're using the Fukushima and Chernobyl as the example. But those were nuclear reactor accidents. Those were not transport accidents.

PATRICK MADAHBEE: I described to you up near Wawa a tractor trailer on January 5th, a logging truck jackknife and low-grade uranium was coming down the hill on a tanker and it crashed into the tractor trailer and there was a spill. They called in a spill unit. We never heard any more about it. That's the kind of things that happen. People don't hear about these things. There is high level security when they transport these things. They don't tell anybody the routes. And it's an accident waiting to happen. I mean there have been many disasters on the highways and people are gambling with people's lives and water supply and land.

AMT: OK and you say it's an accident waiting to happen and you just send millions of people, can you point to an accident where millions of people have been killed by a nuclear accident?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: No I can't do that. I'm just saying if one of these transport vehicles crashes in a highly populated area, the consequences would be very, very dramatic.

AMT: The proposal to build a nuclear waste storage facility in Kincardine, Ontario has been controversial with environmental groups and some local citizens. However, the Saugeen Ojibway Nation in the region — known as SON — has been in talks with Ontario Power Generation about the proposed facility. They've been given the power to say yes or no on how the project goes ahead. Here is Chief Lester Anoquot of Saugeen First Nation, one of the members of the group.

SOUNDCLIP

VOICE 1: We've come to an agreement where they won't construct the deep geological repository without Saugeen's consent so our conversation is ongoing. We also have some issues around legacy, past grievances, that OPG is prepared to address. So that's an ongoing dialogue, we haven't reached any conclusion on the file yet, it's still open and ongoing with the team.

AMT: So they have the right to say yes or no to the facility and their negotiating, would you like that kind of arrangement?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Well under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples these types of things are supposed to be protected and our Treaty rights also talk about protection of our territories. What they're saying over there in Saugeen is they haven't said yes to anything. They're looking at it, examining the situation, looking at past grievances, but the reality is that they are faced with an unusual situation. There already is the Bruce nuclear plant close by and they already have radiation material already stored down there. So they’re in a hell of a dilemma there.

AMT: Why is this an Indigenous issue specifically?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: It's not an Indigenous issue specifically; it should be everybody's concern in Canada because the government of Canada has turned over the regulation of the nuclear industry to Nuclear Waste Management Association. It should be the government setting the protections and guidelines for the Canadian people.

AMT: And so who are you speaking with to try to do that?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: This is a UN forum on Indigenous issues and we're addressing an international community here. I think they let them know that this is happening in Canada and First Nations lands are at stake here, our water is at stake, and also the land and water that ordinary Canadians also live in. So you know I think everybody in Canada should be worried. In addition to what's going on here they're looking at depositories and other parts of Ontario as well. And right now Ignace, Ontario is one of the preferred sites. They look for economically depressed communities and they try to see where they can buy their way into storing this stuff.

AMT: We asked for comment from many government organizations involved in nuclear waste disposal — the Nuclear Waste Management Association, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, as well as various other organizations that look after very specific types of nuclear waste. No one was available for an interview today. With all of these government organizations involved, how hard is it to figure out who to talk to about your concerns?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Well the thing about this is that there is big money at stake. You know when we can buy power from Quebec or actually quit sending our overload of power into the United States and using green energy we could stop this producing this stuff in the first place. Then they need to leave the stuff where it is right now until the science can catch up to how to deal with this stuff because you can't get rid of this stuff for millions of years.

AMT: OK Chief Madahbee we have to leave it there. Thank you for your time today.

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Thank you.

AMT: Patrick Madahbee is the grand council chief of the Anishinabek Nation in North Bay, Ontario. We reached him in New York City. Some Indigenous groups and activists as well as other environmentalists may be worried about nuclear waste transportation and disposal. But many scientists with ties to the nuclear industry say there is little to be concerned about. David Shoesmith is a Professor of Chemistry at Western University. He's spent 38 years researching nuclear waste disposal issues, including research paid for, in part, by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. That's the federal body responsible for designing and implementing Canada's plan for the storage of used nuclear fuel. We've reached David Shoesmith in London, Ontario. Hello.

DAVID SHOESMITH: Good morning.

AMT: I wonder if you could first speak to some of the concerns you've just heard from our last guest; the transportation and the potential for accidents.

DAVID SHOESMITH: Well the potential for an accident on the road of course is always there. The question is what kind of precautions is taken in this particular case. I would encourage the chief to contact Ontario Power Generation and look at the way that they intend to transport the waste when they would do. It's in special containers; drop tested, and guaranteed that they will survive those kinds of incidents. It's not just going to be the equivalent to a tanker with a pile of waste. The precautions taken are extreme.

AMT: He points to an incident January 5th with low-grade uranium, can you speak to that?

DAVID SHOESMITH: I'm not aware of that incident. It's my understanding there has not been an incident in Canada, any road accident involving the transport of nuclear material, but that particular incident if it occurred I don't know about it.

AMT: OK well we will continue to look at that and maybe get back to our listeners about what that actually was. Specifically you have researched this issue with the support for the nuclear waste management organization, to what extent is nuclear waste being handled properly in Canada.

DAVID SHOESMITH: It's being handled as it should be handled. The criteria for how you handle waste is not just a Canadian issue, it's an international issue. Most countries collaborate on how you would handle and deal with this material and most of it is stored very safely on reactor sites, certainly in Canada. I don't see that anybody should have any issues.

AMT: What kinds of nuclear wastes are there? There are different grades.

DAVID SHOESMITH: Yes there are. There are three or you can classify them according to three. There's low level, intermediate level, and high level. The low level is effectively laboratory gloves, a lab coat, and that is marginally radioactive. Intermediate level will be components that come out of operator reactors [unintelligible] for one function or another and that they're no longer usable. That will be the intermediate. Those are the two kinds of wastes which would go into the repository in Kincardine. The third kind of waste is the high level waste. This is the toxic fuel that comes out of the reactor, that's extremely toxic, that's why extreme precautions are taken. All of that is stored on reactor site. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization's goal is to safely come up with a way of disposing of that waste. So the Kincardine one is only the low and intermediate level waste, the high level waste is not part of that disposal scenario.

AMT: And where will the high level waste go for example in the closing of Chalk River?

DAVID SHOESMITH: Well if it's high level waste then it certainly won't be buried in an intermediate level waste. It would be considered to be part of the waste which end up [unintelligible] the Nuclear Waste Management Organization is presently responsible for. That decision of where to put a repository for high level waste has not been made and that I think involves a community such as Ignace, one that was mentioned in your discussion. There are a number of those sites which have been identified as having appropriate geology. And as you noted in your discussion the decision of whether or not a community will accept it is up to the local community. This has not being forced upon anybody.

AMT: And there are also great concerns about the burying of ways because of the concerns and it can leech into water ways. We've heard this criticism a number of times. How deep is this stuff buried?

DAVID SHOESMITH: It would depend on the depth at which you bury it, depends on the quality of the deposit that you have. If it was in a granitic rock you would be looking for a location within the rock where there is minimal number of fractures. If it was in a sedimentary clay you would be looking for a location in the clay where you can measure the water rate of transport through that location is effectively zero and therefore you would choose a location through which no water was flowing.

AMT: And are those sites monitored or are they built and just left?

PATRICK MADAHBEE: Well none of them are being built. The waste presently or certainly Canadian waste is stored at reactor sites and there's no immediate emergency to dispose of it tomorrow. So the study of what might be the most appropriate place to put it is ongoing as are the social discussions about whether individual communities would be happy and accept it.

AMT: We heard concerns from our last guests about accidents at nuclear plants despite assurances that facilities are safe. He raised Fukushima in Japan which was of course part of earthquake and tsunami accident. How did those concerns play in this conversation?

DAVID SHOESMITH: I don't think those conversations are relevant in this discussion. The operation of nuclear reactors is a completely different subject. Here we're talking about the static waste which we have to dispose of, so it's not the same issue, and I don't see the point in discussing it in the same context. They're just not in the same context.

AMT: So is this conflating a bunch of issues? What do we have to be careful of here? What should we be asking?

DAVID SHOESMITH: In terms of the nuclear waste?

AMT: Yes.

DAVID SHOESMITH: Well as some of the questions that were being asked, I'm not suggesting that anybody should not pay attention to it, that will be most inappropriate. People should be concerned in any location which is thinking of accepting a repository should talk very, very in major detail with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization which they will be more than willing to do in order to make a decision whether or not they want to accept it. It's toxic. It's not something that we don't think we can handle. We've been looking at it for 40 years. We have been collaborating internationally. This is not an issue that anybody can make any money out of. Everybody puts all their information so the studies are international. So I'm very confident that what we have is a workable scenario which would safely dispose of this waste.

AMT: And why do you think the discussions around nuclear waste are always so controversial?

DAVID SHOESMITH: I think because people do partly convolute — first of all there are two features I think. One is they convolute the reactor system to the waste disposal system and the two should not be discussed in the context and then the lifetime of some of the radionuclide are indeed long and the fuel when it first comes out of the reactor is indeed extremely toxic. So there is an issue and I think that most people believe that or don't want to believe that you can dispose of something for a long period of time. They forget of course that over that long period of time it's degrading to an innocuous danger level.

AMT: OK we have to leave it there. David Shoesmith, thank you for your time.

DAVID SHOESMITH: You're welcome.

AMT: David Shoesmith is a Professor of Chemistry at Western University, who has spent 38 years researching nuclear waste disposal issuesm, including research paid for, in part, by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. He was in London, Ontario. And just to clarify according to Mining Magazine, according to the Blind River Refinery Cameco which was refining uranium concentrate or yellowcake, there was a minor traffic accident on January 7th between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The load was not a factor. The company said no damage to the public or to the environment was recorded. You’re listening to The Current on CBC radio One. I'm Anna Maria Tremonti. The CBC News is next. And when we return Megan Williams spent time aboard a rescue ship in the Mediterranean; who she met, what she saw, that’s coming up with her documentary. Stay with us.

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The body on the boat: How a mystery unravelled on a migrant rescue ship, and the toll it took on an MSF doctor

Guest: Megan Williams

[Music: Theme]

AMT: We’re devoting the rest of our program today to a close-up look at what has been called the world's deadliest border. In the past four years, an estimated 600,000 people have attempted crossing the Mediterranean Sea in hopes of reaching Europe. 15,000 of them drowned. And as the weather warms, more migrants are getting ready to risk the journey. Many are rescued by small volunteer run humanitarian boats that patrol off the North African coast near Libyan waters, on the lookout for rubber boats in trouble. They are difficult missions with volunteer medical staff dealing with traumatic injuries and deaths. In fact over the weekend the Libyan coast guard recovered 11 bodies. And, increasingly, their efforts are mired in politics. Rome-based radio journalist Megan Williams saw the drama in the Mediterranean unfold up close. She spent more than two weeks aboard the Aquarius; now one of only two humanitarian rescue boats operating in the Mediterranean. This is her documentary Onboard. And just a warning some of the details in this story are disturbing.

SOUNDCLIP

[Sound: Sea]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: We're about 25 nautical miles from the coast of the North African country of Libya in a small boat with the calm, almost flat Mediterranean Sea stretched out around us like an immense blue dessert. An hour or so ago we could see a short dark line squiggling on the horizon. Now, in the near distance is a rubber boat. Long and blue and crammed with life.

[Sound: Walkie-talkie “No medical cases…”]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: This is my 11th day onboard the Aquarius migrant rescue ship. And even though this is my third rescue, the sight of this boat, with too many heads to count rising and falling in the middle of a vast stretch of water, still stuns me.

[Sound: Lowing sending boat]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Beside me, the team lowers a small rescue boat alongside the Aquarius and drives off toward the rubber boat. From the deck, I watch in the distance the rescue team hand out lifejackets. Carefully, the loading of people starts, a dozen at a time, onto the small boat to bring them here to the safety of the Aquarius. Then the wave of humanity washes over us.

[Sound: Baby crying]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: First, babies, one after another thrust forward into the arms of the rescuers and medical staff. One worker comforts an infant while another lifts off the mother's life jacket so she can finally hold her.

[Sound: “Hello, welcome…”]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: A nurse welcomes the mums on board as they struggle unsteadily up the ladder. They're from the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mali, and other African countries. Some drop to their knees to kiss the boat. Others cry out thank you. All of them are dazed.

[Sound: Woman crying]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Huddling together under blankets, almost wailing with relief. Among the crowd is Dominika Wanczyk, shaking hands and hugging people as they step on board.

[Sound: “Welcome… thank you…”]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Looking into the eyes of each person gauging what shape they're in.

[Sound: “How are you? Fine? You’re fine?”]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: She has dark blond hair and a wide, friendly face. The Canadian is one of the three MSF nurses on board. Among the fray, Seif Khirfan, also with Medicins Sans Frontieres, the doctor tends to the weakest, those who are malnourished, who have been tortured, or suffer from neglected chronic illnesses.

[Sound: “She was in the hospital…”]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Like this woman who says she was hospitalized before Libya.

[Sound: Walkie talkie]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: 171 people were squeezed in that rubber boat, so tight they couldn't move. And, we learn, a body, too.

[Sound: Body bag]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: The rescue team puts on rubber gloves and makes one last trip to the almost empty migrant boat to bring back the corpse. It's a woman. Young.

[Sound: Singing]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Then, those who made it to us alive spill out their thanks across the water. While Seif, the doctor, braces for the post mortem, one that will leave him reeling. I've been reporting on the migrant situation in Italy for more than a decade. And I've heard dozens of accounts of the grim journey across the Mediterranean; people fleeing violence in Syria and Africa, escaping despotic regimes, and crippling poverty. And more recently, Libya, where migrants say they're kidnapped, tortured, raped and enslaved. The numbers of people crossing to Italy on flimsy boats have shot way up in the last few years to almost 200,000 a year. A lot of the boatloads are rescued by patrolling European naval ships with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome in command. Still, thousands of people drown each year, and so the simple mission of the humanitarian groups MSF and SOS Mediterranee on board is to save lives at sea. But their efforts are not without controversy, I'll come back to that. First, let me share with you, life aboard the Aquarius.

[Sound: “Welcome on board…”]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Eleven days earlier, I climbed aboard bright orange boat docked at the far end of the port of Catania, Sicily. This is the Aquarius, a humanitarian boat run by MSF and SOS Mediterranee. It has about two dozen cabins, a dining room, and small clinic. Laura Garel with SOS shows me around.

LAURA GAREL: This is the shelter, where women and children stay after a rescue…

MEGAN WILLIAMS: The women's shelter is a long, grey, low ceilinged room with supply bags for the migrants stacked at one end. Someone's taped up the outline of a boat, an anchor, fish and even the words 'welcome' in an effort to make it feel friendlier. But in the days ahead, the room will be so overrun with people; you can't even see the walls. The next days, bad weather keeps us stuck at port. So, we run through drills: CPR, hypothermia, fire, and person overboard. The time in port also gives me a chance to learn something about who signs up for this kind of mission.

SEIF KHIRFAN: Numbers are very high. Sometimes you have 700 people here. So we try to triage to the more urgent ones we see first…

MEGAN WILLIAMS: I sit down with Doctor Seif Khirfan in the small clinic he runs with three MSF nurses.

SEIF KHIRFAN: A lot wounds with respiration, maybe pneumonia…

MEGAN WILLIAMS: He's Egyptian, from Cairo and this is first volunteer stint with MSF. He learned about the group when he saw them in action seven years ago during the Arab Spring uprising in Tahrir Square.

SEIF KHIRFAN: I think I was 28-29 working in the field hospitals and journalists didn't have access into the square because of security, so I started filming what was happening and sending footage outside, so when I looked at MSF and saw their history that they were made by a group of journalists and doctors, I thought wow this sounds like something that would suit me. I really connected with it at the beginning so I was involved as a protester the first day, and I went down with a sign that had my salary, I was a resident back then and I got paid 200 Egyptian pounds which is like 15 euros a month something like this Fifteen. It was really really low. I got shot actually with one of those shot guns from a distance so I ended up having 25 little metal pellets pierce my body.

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Seif is a small, fit, handsome man with olive skin, dark hair, and wide gentle eyes. When he applied to MSF, Seif specifically asked to be assigned to the Aquarius.

SEIF KHIRFAN: Part of that was because in Egypt a lot of people take this trip. They go on boats from Alessandria and they do the suicide mission of crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe, and every winter we'd hear news about boat drowning, 50 people losing their lives, I did a news story on those specific people leaving from near Alexandria. We went to this village where maybe half the kids there have already attempted doing this trip. And some of them were on boats that drowned, but still wanted to go again because there life is really bad. So I was really interested to see the journey, you know, the other side, what happens to them at sea and what happens when they disembark. And I thought maybe if they see someone who reminds them of home maybe it would be comforting for them, someone who speaks the same language.

DOMINIKA WANCZEK: I was born in Poland, my parents decided to leave, that they wanted more opportunities.

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Nurse Dominika Wanczek tells me about her background and why her empathy for those who flee their homelands comes so naturally. Her parents claimed political asylum in Berlin just after the fall of the wall.

DOMINIKA WANCZEK: And Canada first country that sponsored us. I feel very grateful that I got to grow up in Canada.

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Dominika is from Calgary. She's just 32, but she's already an experienced nurse with MSF with postings in South Sudan and other African hotspots. She admits those were tough seeing children starving.

DOMINIKA WANCZEK: As a nurse you always have a bit of a protective barrier which you need to be able to do your job to focus on medical needs, but yeah it was a pretty surreal experience to see kids in this state and sometimes to see kids like this and think they were still alive, it's a terrible sight, I mean these are kids are kids, but they’re lifeless and apathetic and literally starving.

MEGAN WILLIAMS: But the MSF tour with the Aquarius will be different. It's her first time on a boat, treating migrants. And she says, she's nervous about being out at sea.

DOMINIKA WANCZEK: I mean, I would definitely be afraid to have a rescue that goes badly, I mean we're out here to save lives and if something goes wrong, that’s a very scary thought.

[Sound: Horn]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Finally, the worst of the weather lifts. The crew hauls in the cables mooring the boat. It's a weird feeling as we head out. Both exciting to finally be going, but also dread at what we face.

[Sound: Waves]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: The days at sea drag out. Some days the waves are so big, it's hard to walk straight. Even when their smaller, it's still too choppy for human traffickers to risk launching the flimsy rubber boats. So, we patrol back and forth, sometimes catching glimpses of dusty skyscrapers in Tripoli in the distance and big oil rigs just off the coast. In the evenings, to pass the time, there's group exercise on deck, boxing down in the hull's tiny gym and one night music with Seif playing the drums.

[Sound: Music]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Then, on the fourth day at sea, mid-morning, in what seems like an instant, the winds drop and the water turns to glass. The stillness feels ominous. It's strange to be in this beautiful gentle ocean and yet know that the calm and peacefulness mean people are going to be putting themselves in danger. Cramming into overloaded boats launched into the sea. And there's also the awareness that below the water's surface lies a kind of cemetery. In 2017 alone, more than 3,000 migrants drowned in these waters. And those are just the ones we know about.

[Sound: Footsteps]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: I climb up to the bridge where Rocco Aiello stands with his binoculars pressed against his eyes, on the lookout for migrant boats. Rocco's a rescue volunteer from Calabria. He's a boxer, with a thick, greying ponytail and years of experience at sea. Last night, after dinner, we stayed at the table talking the accusations of some politicians against humanitarian boats like the Aquarius. That the boats are a "pull factor” in other words, their very presence at sea encourages migrants to risk the passage. I've seen studies that show that's not true, that migrants risk the crossing whether humanitarian boats are there are not. But in the past year, the accusations have gotten uglier. That the humanitarians are actually colluding with traffickers by taking phone calls directly from them or of being "migrant taxis." I asked Rocco if the Aquarius ever got calls directly from traffickers and well, he got angry. The boat never gets instructions from anyone but the headquarters in Rome he said. And even asking that, he told me, was out of line. It's an accusation that everyone on the boat is very, very sensitive to. Rocco puts down the binoculars.

ROCCO: Non-English speaking language

MEGAN WILLIAMS: See how calm the water is, he says. We're going to have a rescue by morning.

[Sound: Knock on door]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: He was right. At 5:30 AM, Laura wakes me up.

LAURA GAREL: We have potential rescues and you need to get ready.

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Alright. I get dressed and head upstairs. I ask how far the migrant boat is Laura tells me about half an hour.

LAURA GAREL: 30 minutes.

MEGAN WILLIAMS:: A Spanish naval ship has already reached the rubber dingy and handed out lifejackets. But the Marine Rescue Coordination Center in Rome has ordered the Aquarius to carry out the actual rescue. Out on deck, Seif is getting ready to go out with the first contact boat.

MEGAN WILLIAMS: There are no reports of medical cases so far?

SEIF KHIRFAN: So far we haven’t got any reports. It should be a simple rescue.

[Sound: Lowering boat, walkie talkie “Pull Away!” Cries from boat in distance]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: From the deck, I can make out faint cries for help in the distance. Then, the first inflatable raft returns with a boatload of women and children.

[Sound: “Ready for the stretcher… feet first.”]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: And up they tumble.

[Sound: Babies wailing, women chanting]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: We the crew, medical staff, even I help, giving them their bags of water and high energy biscuits. We help them strip off their wet clothes two or three layers. In the Libyan detention camps, they were allowed no possessions and had to wear their extra clothes.

[Sound: Women sobbing]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: I try to hide my shock at the sight of a bone-thin women covered with scraps of seaweed. So weak, she's barely kept on her feet by her sisters. Later, I find out she's been tortured in Libya.

[Sound: “Let’s just change her clothes…”]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Then the men arrive, also from Africa. Hugging and laughing and crying too. They receive their bags with fresh clothing. They all put on the same black tracksuits with white stripes up the side, the migrant uniform. Yet, within minutes, it seems, the towels they've been given become hipster scarves and African head wraps with style and flare. And I'm amazed, though shouldn't be, by the human capacity need for individual expression and beauty in the worst circumstances. People wanting the same things we all want.

[Sound: Baby crying]

MEGAN WILLIAMS: Later, out on deck, I sit with Alima, a 19-year-old from the Cote d'Ivoire. She's holding the baby of a friend who needs to sleep. Despite having spent two months in Libyan prison camps, she has an unsuppressable teenage energy. She's also seven months pregnant.