22 Asylum seekers who are rescued at sea are not entitled to disembark at the nearest port or at the port of their destination. Indeed, the IMO Rescue Guidelines, SOLAS, and the SAR Convention treat disembarkation in general as an obligation of conduct rather than of result. What is contemplated is that States—eg nearby port States, the flag State of the vessel that rescued asylum seekers, the State from which asylum seekers departed, and the State primarily responsible for the search and rescue region in which the rescue occurred—will coordinate and cooperate, perhaps in association with the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (
Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for [UNHCR]), to find a suitable place for disembarkation.
Article 10 (1) EU FRONTEX Regulation does, however, establish disembarkation mandates for ships under the responsibility of an EU Member State that are engaged in maritime border surveillance and that rescue persons in distress at sea.