European Regional Meeting of IMRF, Mariehamn, Aland Islands

The European Regional Meeting of the IMRF is now only 6 weeks away.

These meetings are held annually and provide a forum for discussion on the challenges facing maritime SAR and an opportunity for organisations to share knowledge and information on how they are addressing these challenges.

The meeting is open to members and non-members, who are involved in maritime SAR.

We have canvassed our members for topics of discussion and have settled on two areas that will be covered in two sessions:

Session 1 – MRO Crisis in the Mediterranean – How Can We Help, What Can We Learn?

The ongoing challenge to SAR in the Mediterranean is impacting on all of Europe with no end in sight to the flow of people heading across the water putting themselves at risk. We have a panel of speakers, who can provide a picture of what is happening, including the work of Frontex, the first hand experiences on the water and the melding of governmental and non-governmental efforts. We then intend to break into groups to discuss how SAR services across Europe could help and look at what SAR lessons we can learn from this unprecedented situation. (see the agenda for topics)

SSRS CEO and former IMRF Chairman and Trustee is quoted as saying:

This session looks at how we can improve the flow of information and the collaboration on common projects and initiatives between the European SAR Organisations. Too often we, the IMRF, come across great ideas and initiatives that are being duplicated across organisations, we would like to think there is a better way of sharing this information and knowledge.

To help with the discussions we have invited presentations on areas that provide a great opportunity for this type of collaboration to occur. See the Preliminary Programme for the topics).

We are also all invited to be part of the ÅSRS 50th celebration, which provides an opportunity to catch up with people you know and make new contacts from the European SAR Community, while recognising the great commitment made to the Aland Island community by ÅSRS.

For more information and registration about the IMRF European Regional Meeting 2015 – Mariehamn, Åland Islands, Finland, go the the Events pages on the IMRF Website.