ISLAND LIFE

WORDS PENNY McLEOD PHOTOGRAPHY LUKE BOWDEN

Mariner Madeleine Habib’s calm, expressive face and poise belie the rage she’s felt at times as captain of Médecins Sans Frontières vessel Dignity, rescuing refugees in the central Mediterranean.

“There are plenty of times when I feel furious or overwhelmed,” says Habib, who is shown here in Hobart last month on her way to New York to talk about the Mediterranean migrant crisis at the Women in the World Summit.

“But every person who makes it on to the deck of a rescue ship is another person who didn’t drown. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the crisis. I try to focus on the individual stories and to recognise that every person has their own story and their right to a better life.”

Habib moved to Hobart in 1999 to study at the Australian Maritime College. She lives with her husband in South Hobart for about six months of each year.

She’s otherwise on call for assignments — as a ship’s captain with organisations such as Greenpeace and MSF, and from June with RedR Australia in Ethiopia, working with the United Nations World Food Programme.

“I am glad that I can use my seafaring skills to make a difference in the world. I know that without NGO rescue vessels there would be many more deaths in the Central Mediterranean,” Habib says.

“When you come from a place that is safe and healthy [such as Tasmania] it is much easier to go out into the world and fight for the right for all humans to experience a better quality of life.”