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St Kilda beach lifeguard Simon Lewis is heading over to Europe for one of the hardest jobs Earth. Picture: Chris Eastman

THE buck stops with me. Im responsible, St Kilda lifesaver Simon Lewis says, if I get it wrong, people can die and if I get it right, then a lot of lives can be saved.

In his red and yellow uniform with windswept hair, 33-year-old Simon might look like any other typical Aussie surf lifesaver. But hes not.

Simon is an international humanitarian lifeguard who is about to face the most harrowing task of his career.

In a few short hours, hell board a plane to Europe and complete two back-to-back volunteer lifesaving missions. The second posting will see him installed as the first Australian head of mission for a non-profit organisation (NGO) on the deadliest migration route in the world, off the coast of Libya.

Each week, thousands of desperate people attempt to cross the treacherous Mediterranean Sea in flimsy inflatable boats. According to the United Nations, more than 5000 people died trying in 2016.

Reflecting on the enormity of his upcoming task, Simon explains that at any one time, 500 stricken refugees can be transferred to the Mission Lifeline vessel hell be stationed on.

We put a lot of strategies in place ... and weve got specialist mass rescue equipment, but the sad reality of it is that people do die.

Youve just got to give dignity in death. No matter what happens [and] what the outcomes are, you need to remember how you would want to be treated.

You dont put yourself in the sea and you dont put yourself in a situation where youre going to die unless its your single best hope of life, he says.

Even so, Simon who has already completed three previous missions acknowledges the so-called burden of rescue.

You cant un-see what youve seen, you cant un-smell what youve smelt the smell of death, the smell of fear, the smell of vomit, he says, You feel extremely proud of yourself when you save someone but when you dont you feel a deep low. You couldnt help them but you were right there.

Simon Lewis (left) with his colleagues during a previous rescue mission. Picture: Kevin McElvaneySource:Supplied

Over the last two years Simon has helped to save the lives of nearly 1,400 African and Syrian refugees as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Greece and Italy.

Sure, he could have stayed in his comfort zone patrolling St Kilda beach and working at various local swim centres. But he didnt. And he didnt because he couldnt.

I cannot just sit by in Australia and watch people drown in Europe and not help them, he explains.

Like so many of us, Simon saw the devastating photo of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi drowned and washed ashore near Bodrum in Turkey on September 2, 2015.

I saw that dead child and the way he washed up on the beach, the position of his body [and] because of my Australian lifesaving skills, I knew that the tidal currents were strong.

I knew how he would have died by the colour of the skin and how he would have had a very tragic death, Simon recalls.

The picture of little Aylan Kurdi that galvanised the world. Picture: Nilufer Demir / AFP / DOGAN NEWS AGENCYSource:AFP

He hit Google and quickly learned that Aylan Kurdi was not alone. Thousands of people fleeing war and political unrest in their homelands were dying trying to cross to Europe.

I thought to myself: Well I know how to save people, I know how to rescue people. Why am I not at the biggest humanitarian crisis of our generation, using my skills?

To Simon, little Aylan Kurdi looked just like any other child at St Kilda beach and he deserved to live.

After learning that the International Surf Lifesaving Association was looking for volunteers to assist in the European refugee crisis, Simon successfully applied. By January 2016, he was on his way to Lesbos, Greece.

Fairly rapidly, Simon made international news. Around the world, journalists reported the excruciating moment when Simon declined to take the baby of a desperate refugee woman in the middle of the Aegean Sea.

The boat was moving and she was looking at me, piercing me with her eyes and holding her child out of the boat and saying: Take my baby.

I wanted to take the baby but I couldnt because under international law, it would have been classed as people smuggling. The boat was not in distress. It hadnt stopped and started sinking.

I still remember the look on her face and just breaking her heart that sticks in my head a lot, Simon confesses.

Simon serving food to a rescued refugee girl on MV Aquarius. Picture: Kevin McElvaneySource:Supplied

Although Simon is listed as one of three Victorian Local Hero of the Year 2017 finalists, hes not searching for recognition: I get my thank you from the people we save. They look you in the eyes [and] thats the best reward and the moment that Im the most proud of.

Although Simons next mission is big one, hes focused on staying grounded.

I am anxious, but I know I can handle it because I did a previous mission with SOS Mediterranees MV Aquarius ship patrol in January this year. Ill be applying their search and rescue skills and transferring those professional skills to a new NGO.

Priority number one is myself being an active lifeguard, number two is my boat or my equipment and number three is the victim. So if I take myself out, no one gets saved. Youve got to have that situational awareness and sometimes you cant help everyone, he says.

Melbourne lifeguard Simon Lewis documents his mission with SOS Mediterranee in the SAR zone off the coast of Libya, rescuing refugees at sea. Courtesy: Simon Lewis

You can donate to Simons GoFundMe campaign.

Ginger Gorman is an award-winning print and radio journalist. Follow her on Twitter @GingerGorman or support her work on Patreon.

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European migrant crisis: Lifesaver Simon Lewis has world's hardest ... - NEWS.com.au

The countrys foreign minister said it was time for the UN to tackle the situation in Libya, with thousands of people every month making their way across the Mediterranean Sea.

Angelino Alfano said it was time for the UN to face reality and to help stop the people trafficking and drowning.

He said: It is time for the UN to show its strategic role in the international chessboard.

There is a need for action at several levels: in the Libyan region, it is necessary to facilitate a wider dialogue between the actors involved in a common and peaceful road map and to reiterate to neighbouring countries the need to abandon conflict.

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Refugees and migrants wait in a small rubber boat to be rescued off Lampedusa, Italy

He called for the UN to help bring calm to Libya, something he believed would help stem the migrant crisis.

Mr Alfano said: [We need] an essential contribution to tackle the migratory phenomenon that mainly depends on the stabilisation of Libya.

The reality of the country is undeniable: illicit trafficking may, unfortunately, prove to be a source of enrichment and weakening of the fragile Libyan institutions.

We will also insist on the crucial revival of the Libyan economic system to secure peace, legality and well being.

Italy appears to have lost patience with its European Union allies in dealing with the migrant crisis.

Last month Emmanuel Macron announced a plan to create French migrant processing centres in Libya before being swiftly blocked by his rivals.

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No country can take all the economic migrants

Emmanuel Macron

Mr Macron said: "No country can take all the economic migrants.

The idea is to create hotspots to avoid people taking crazy risks when theyre not all eligible for asylum."

However, officials within his government are believed to be railing against the proposal due to concerns about security in Libya.

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Judith Sunderland, a specialist on migration issues at Human Rights Watch said: "There is a total lack of detail. This has surprised many people, including the European Commission. It's not clear what Macron has in mind."

Already this year 110,000 have crossed from North Africa to Europe, usually arriving in Italy.

Around 2,300 have died or are missing presumed dead while making the dangerous voyage, often in rusting ships or overladen rubber dinghies.

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'Time for UN to act' Italy orders action on migrant crisis after losing patience with EU - Express.co.uk

THE competition among United Nations officials to make the most irritating comment about the UK continues.

There was the UN human rights expert who said sexism was more pervasive here than in any other country she had visited.

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Then the UN Special Representative for International Migration described British plans to build a wall around the port of Calais as inhumane.

Now we have Volker Trk, of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, vying hard for first prize.

Last week Mr Trk said the UK needs to step up and help to address the migrant crisis.

Never mind that we have committed hundreds of millions to help refugees in the camps around Syria, or that in 2016 we resettled more refugees than any other country in the European Union, the panjandrum decrees that we should double the number of refugees we take in.

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He criticised UK politicians for irresponsible rhetoric, called for more understanding and asked for everyone who works in this area to listen to the voice of reason within.

It is Mr Trk and his ilk who are ignoring reason and who have been catastrophically irresponsible in stoking mass migration.

It is time their approach is roundly rejected.

We do not need more understanding or one more heave on refugee numbers.

The migrant crisis of the past few years has been a lesson in the dangers of allowing heart to overrule head.

From Angela Merkels refugees welcome policy to the NGO boats searching the Mediterranean for migrants to rescue, short-term compassion has escalated the crisis, strengthening the magnet that draws millions to Europe from developing countries.

We may see fewer pictures of packed boats on our screens these days but the numbers are growing.

More than 83,000 migrants arrived in southern Italy in the first half of this year, up 19 per cent on the first six months of last year.

AP:Associated Press

More than 2,300 have died on the crossing in 2017.

As The Sun reported yesterday, in Calais a new Jungle camp is forming, with about 1,000 migrants sleeping rough.

The line between refugees and economic migrants is increasingly blurred.

The top three home nations of those arriving in Italy in the first quarter of this year were Nigeria, Bangladesh and Guinea.

UN figures suggest that seven in ten who have come to Libya are escaping poverty.

Not known clear with Picture Desk

Last year, when the UK took in 750 children or young people from the Jungle, fewer than ten were from Syria.

From Senegal to Bangladesh, millions have their sights set on a life in Europe.

Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, recently warned of an exodus of biblical proportions if we dont confront the problem.

Which of our leaders will dare to say it that this surge from poorer nations must be stopped more forcibly?

That for the sake of Europe and the developing world a much harder line must be drawn in the sand between them?

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AFP or licensors

Most will sympathise with those who yearn to escape poverty, especially when the internet has pressed their noses to the window of the prosperous West.

But behind every one who makes it to Italy are many more who will be emboldened to set out on the same journey. The potential numbers are dizzying.

An acceleration of the current crisis would be a disaster not only for the West but for the developing nations who would lose a swathe of young, fit, enterprising citizens.

Long-term, the most benevolent and sensible strategy is to improve life in the poorest countries and so weaken the desire to migrate.

But tackling this push factor will be the work of decades.

There are two pull factors that must be addressed urgently.

The first is the knowledge that once rescued in the central Med, passage to mainland Europe is assured.

The people traffickers ploy is to deliver the migrants not to Italy, but just past Libyas territorial waters so they can be rescued by the NGO ships beyond.

Though motivated by noble instincts, the charities patrolling these waters are effectively aiding the traffickers, and they must be stopped.

The Italians are beleaguered and need more international support to work with the Libyan coastguard to return the boats to Libyan ports.

AP:Associated Press

As Bill Gates (not a noted hardliner) has said: Europe must make it more difficult for Africans to reach the continent via the current transit routes.

Turning back the boats might not be a palatable proposal short-term but until and unless the central Mediterranean is viewed as a route of no hope, the numbers will increase, along with the profits of the people traffickers.

The second great pull factor is the UNs woefully out-of-date Refugee Convention.

Its definition of an asylum-seeker as anyone with a well-founded fear of persecution in their own country is elastic enough, with a little imagination, to cover many millions of people.

AP:Associated Press

It was developed before smartphones let those in the developing world learn their rights under international law.

If simply stepping on to the hallowed ground of the West will earn you a hearing and a decent chance of staying, you will do anything to reach that land.

Only if western countries reform the convention, radically tightening the definition of persecution, do we have a hope of controlling the crisis.

No doubt various UN officials would say such actions lack compassion.

The alternative is dragging out this disaster, drawing more to endanger their lives, enriching the people smugglers, overwhelming European nations and hardening hearts against genuine asylum-seekers.

That does not sound much like compassion to me.

The Times/News Syndication

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Being tougher on the migrant crisis is kinder in the end short-term compassion only makes matters worse - The Sun

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Hakan Fidan met to discuss common security issues on Monday.

Following a closed-door meeting at the Presidential Palace in Belgrade, a written statement from Serbia's presidency said bilateral security issues were among the topics discussed at the meeting:

"President Vucic emphasized that the migrant crisis, with growing terrorist threats, is the security challenge that both the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Turkey are facing."

The two men also agreed that for Serbia and Turkey, Monday's meeting represented an important step in strengthening bilateral cooperation, with the goal of preserving peace and stability in the region as well as throughout Europe.

Vucic also asked Fidan to call on Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, to visit Serbia.

Serbia, a non-EU member, still faces significant challenges from the migrant crisis.

Migrants in Belgrade have been sleeping in abandoned premises near the city's railway station and at other makeshift shelters ever since Hungary and Croatia closed their borders to those traveling the so-called 'Balkan route'.

There are still around 8,000 migrants still in Serbia; the security forces have also returned about 20,000 people who had tried to cross the country's borders illegally.

Police say they have arrested around 2,000 human traffickers since the migrant crisis began.

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Serbian President Vucic, Turkish intelligence chief Fidan discuss security, migrant crisis - Daily Sabah

By Claude Berube and Chris Rawley

This summer while many European vacationers bask on sunny Mediterranean beaches, out in the water, hundreds of people are fighting for their lives while an increasingly more complex and robust collection of maritime non-government organizations (NGOs) (see Table 1) alternatively try to rescue them from drowning or send them back to Africa. The line between maritime human trafficking and a flow of refugees at sea has been blurred. In response to the ongoing migrant wave, the group Defend Europe recently raised enough money to charter a 422-ton ship, the C-Star, to convey a team of its activists to Libya. They arrived in the search-and-rescue zone off the Libyan coast on August 4-5.

The authors understand the complexities of this situation in the central Mediterranean particularly with regard to strongly held political positions by both sides. We try not to take sides in political battles, especially as we sit on the board of directors of the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC). Our interest is simply to discuss how organizations use the sea as a venue to proactively accomplish their own goals and deter their opponents goals. Our piece at War on the Rocks discusses the search-and-rescue NGOs and the approaching counter-NGO ship C-Star. As it has arrived on station off Libyan territorial waters, we spoke with Thorsten Schmidt, spokesman for Defend Europe.

What is the C-Stars mission? We came to the conclusion, Schmidt says, to get activists who are independent and fair. We need to get our own ship to get people there and to observe the left-wing NGOs. Schmidt contends that the media has been embedded with the NGOs and therefore have a bias in support of their work. When asked if C-Star had an embedded reporter or asked for a reporter from any media organization, he stated that they just wanted their own activists to report with cameras.

C-Star from the perspective of the vessel Aquarius on August 5 around 20 nm off the Libyan coast. (via Paco Anselmi/Twitter)

The search-and-rescue (SAR) NGOs have operated between Libya and Sicily for two years. When Defend Europe began to consider their own maritime mission, they were approached by the owner of a ship to charter. The ship was the C-Star (formerly the Suunta a Djibouti-flagged floating armory in the Red Sea). The owner is Sven Tomas Egerstrom, formerly associated with the Cardiff-based Sea Marshals which he was terminated from on 26 March 2014. Although there have been some questions as to whether C-Star has armed guards aboard, it is unlikely. Schmidt told us that the ship had no weapons aboard. More practically, we assessed in our previous piece that Defend Europe does not have the funds to support a ship for an extended mission beyond two weeks as well as the more costly endeavor of an armed guard team. Ships transiting the Gulf of Aden will only pay armed guards for a few days. That is a function of both need and cost in higher-risk areas.

The ship was detained both as it transited the Suez Canal and when it pulled in to Famagusta, Cyprus. It is unknown what exactly happened. Several reports suggested the ship had false documents or was transporting foreign nationals to Europe. Schmidt states that in both cases the authorities found nothing on the ships.

Once on station, C-Star will spend a week in the company of search-and-rescue NGOs and on the lookout for both migrant boats and human traffickers. Their cameras will be their weapons. According to Schmidt, nine out of ten migrants using the sea do not migrate from war-torn countries as refugees. When they reach the Libyan coast, he says, human traffickers put them on gray rafts and enough food and fuel to get to the 12 nautical mile territorial limit of Libya where search-and-rescue NGOs then pick up the migrants and take them to Europe. The traffickers use smaller, high-speed boats to follow the rafts then, when the NGOs have rescued the migrants, the traffickers take the motors and return them to Libya. Schmidt notes that in some cases, the traffickers join the migrants so that they can establish networks in Sicily and beyond. Italian authorities in Lampedusa this week seized the Iuventa, owned by the SAR NGO Jugend Rettet, accusing them of aiding and abetting traffickers.

If C-Star encounters a migrant boat in distress, Schmidt says it will render assistance first by notifying the MRCC in Rome, and then bring them aboard. According to Schmidt, the ship has hundreds of life vests. When asked about how it might accommodate for potentially dozens of refugees from a boat in distress, he says the ship is fully equipped with an extra amount of water and food. Of course there are several activists on board with medical aid skills. Instead of taking the migrants to Sicily or other European ports, they intend to take the migrants to closer, non-European ports such as in Tunisia. It is unknown if they have secured the diplomatic agreements to make those transfers happen. Defend Europe argues that this makes sense since there are closer countries than Italy that arent unstable like Libya.

Defend Europe wants an end to human trafficking but, as Schmidt says, we are just one ship and you cant stop it with just one shipWe are an avant garde but need help. Though they have an abbreviated mission this time, the $185,000 they have raised ensures that they will look to a second and third mission. Already, he says, two more ship owners have contacted them.

Table 1: NGO Rescue & Interdiction Vessels Operating in the Mediterranean

Claude Berube teaches at the United States Naval Academy and is an officer in the Navy Reserve. He has published three non-fiction books and two novels. Follow him on Twitter @cgberube. Chris Rawley is a Navy Reserve surface warfare officer and entrepreneur. Follow him on Twitter @navaldrones. Rawley and Berube frequently write and speak on maritime organizations and both serve on the Board of Directors of CIMSEC. The views expressed are theirs alone and not of any organization with which they are affiliated.

Featured Image:A banner reading Stop Human Trafficking attached to the side of the C-Star. (Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP)

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The Med Migrant Crisis and Defend Europe - CIMSEC