This is nothing new.
First, as a cruiser with a sailing yacht, you aren't able to provide assistance to the average over-crowded refugee
boat with usually 30 to 120 people on board without endangering yourself. By the rules of SOLAS, you're required to take care of the
safety of your crew first. Harsh but clear.
Next approaching such an overcrowded
boat isn't without
danger to you and the boat. Many a refugee boat capsized and many lives were
lost when the refugees started to panic to get off. So your approach might well lead to their deaths. You might want to check how rescue operation approach these boat. They stand off until they establish communication and are confident the requests from the rescuers are followed. If not, they move away until calm is restored.
And last, losing or finding crew underway is hairy business. Once you arrive at the next port, you'll have a lot of explaining to do, specially of you found some people without proper immigration papers. And should you appear insincere, you'll be quickly moved from rescuer to human trafficker.
For all these reasons, the only proper way to deal with such a situation in the past 15 years was:
- Stay well off to protect your own ship and crew
- Inform MRCC (usually refugees are in coastal waters or close by)
- Follow their instructions (usually wait for the professionals)
- Let them deal with it
- Don't be stupid
So these new
regulations aren't in reality anything new. Just some posturing to appear tough by politicians.