Òscar Camps Gausachs (

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, 28 November 1963), is a Catalan lifeguard, entrepreneur and activist, known mainly for being the founder and director of the NGO

Proactiva Open Arms Proactiva Open Arms (POA) is a Spanish NGO devoted to search and rescue (SAR) at sea. Set up in October 2015, it carried out its first rescue action that same month from its base on the Greek island of Lesbos. As well as maintaining a permanent b ...

. He was awarded the Catalan Prize of the Year in 2015. Born in Barcelona, Camps was the owner of a lifeguard company based in Badalona, Pro-Activa Serveis Aquatics, which was dedicated to maritime services, specifically water security and lifeguarding. In the context of the European migrant crisis, during the Syrian civil war, when thousands were losing their lives trying to reach

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, Camps decided to move to Lesbos, a Greek island near

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, to evaluate the situation on the ground. The key event that prompted him to move was the posting of images of the body of

Alan Kurdi Alan Kurdi (born as Alan Shenu), initially reported as Aylan Kurdi, was a two-year-old Syrian boy (initially reported as having been three years old) of Kurdish ethnic background whose image made global headlines after he drowned on 2 September 20 ...

, a three-year-old boy who had died while trying to cross the border with his family. He and a few colleagues decided to apply their lifesaving expertise to help rescue refugees trying to reach the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

via the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

. In September 2015 a group of volunteers decided to found the NGO

, funded with 15,000 euros, and went to the island by work on rescue tasks. At first, the only material they had were various wetsuits, fins and breathing tubes. The group's main activities were to guide and help reach the beaches to refugees, mainly

Syrians Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

, who came from

in very precarious boats. Over time, however, the available equipment improved, mainly through donations from individuals. Spanish and European media echoed the activity of Camps and the NGO in Lesbos, mainly due to their visibility in photos uploaded to the internet. For example TV3 broadcast of the To Kyma documentary where the group's activity was monitored in various actions on the Greek island. On March 2, 2016, Camps and Proactiva were able to visit the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, where they spoke on behalf of refugees.

Awards

Camps received the 2015 Catalan of the Year Award. He also received the Medal of Honor of the Parliament of Catalonia in recognition of his humanitarian work through Proactiva Open Arms next to

Carola Rackete Carola Rackete (; born 8 May 1988 in Preetz, Germany) is a German ship captain who volunteered with the German sea rescue organisation Sea-Watch. In June 2019, she was arrested for docking a migrant rescue ship without authorization in the por ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Camps, Òscar People from Barcelona 21st-century Spanish businesspeople Spanish activists 1963 births Living people