In a tweet on Wednesday, NGO founder Òscar Camps expressed his sadness over the deaths of Guatemalan refugee Óscar Alberto Martínez and his young daughter Valeria, who were pictured drowned following an attempt to cross the Río Grande between Texas and Mexico.

“This photo saddened me more than that of Aylan [the Syrian boy who was pictured drowned on a Turkish beach in 2015]. 6 months of being prohibited from leaving. We’re pulling up anchors and leaving. I rather be in prison than complicit.”

https://twitter.com/campsoscar/status/1143964616327909376?s=20

The Open Arms ship had previously been blockaded in the port of Barcelona for over 100 daysbefore being authorized to carry humanitarian aid to the eastern Mediterranean, but the ban on taking part in migrant rescue operations was never lifted.

The ship had recently sailed to Naples as part of an awareness-raising campaign amid increased political backlash in Europe against migrants and migrant rescue, claiming that “not all of Italy is Salvini,” in reference to the country’s notoriously anti-migrant interior minister.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Mediterranean has become the world’s deadliest border, with 597 recorded deaths between January 1 and June 28, 2019.

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