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if they are prepared to permit landing at all, generally require a guarant for resettlement in another country and for care and maintenance pending resettle- ment. There have also been instances in which a state has not permitted disembark- ation on its territory even from vesself flying its flag.
23. In the majority of cases flag states or states of ownership of rescuing ships are ready to provide resettlement guarantees, whilst interim care and maintenance is assured by UNHCR. In certain cases, however, the flag or ownership state may be either unwilling to provide a rosettlement guarantee or unable to do so quickly for practical reasons.
29.
Thus UNHCR is frequently faced with the necessity of finding a country other than the flag/ownership state which would be ready to guarantee acceptance of a specific person or group of boat cases. This naturally necessitates negotiations with potential resettlement countries, to whom individual cases have to be submitted for approval.
30. An important related consideration is safety after rescue. The rescuing vessel may not have sufficient life-saving equipment for all those rescued. If disembark- ation at the first port of call is not possible, masters may then be forced or alternatively refuse - to continue their voyage in breach of national maritime safety regulations.
31. As a result of the delay in obtaining disembarkation permission, or sometines even refusal of permission to land altogether, the rescue ship can incur heavy financial penalties for the time over-stayed at port and consequent loss of business.
32.
International law relating to rescue at sea assumes that the distress is real; many countries provide severe penalties for false distress calls. However, just as boat cases have reported that genuine distress signals have been ignored, so they and masters have also reported that distress signals were made by craft in circumstances in which the craft making the distress signal was either not in danger, or only in danger as a result of action taken on sighting a potential rescuer. The possibility that the craft is not in distress, for example if in calm weather it was first sighted exhibiting no distress signals and making way normally, may thus be a factor influencing the master's decision.
33. None of these factors can condone failure to comply with the law regarding rescue at sea. However, the dilemma faced by a master in such situations is very real. The Executive Committee at its twenty-ninth session commended the masters and owners of ships that had rescued refugees and the states that had offered them temporary or permanent asylum, and decided on measures designed to encourage the rescue of boat cases. The decision inter alia called on states to instruct ships flying their flags to rescue refugecs, coastal states to provide at least temporary asylum and all states to apply special and accelerated procedures to provide durable solutions for refugees rescued at sea. Swift implementation of this decision would help to save 'life.
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