Highlights: The German rescue boat Humanity 1 has, since the beginning of the week, still been immobilized by the Italian authorities. The Italian authorities accuse the crew of this boat of having caused a clash with the Libyan coast guard who had intervened, following a call from Frontex, to intercept migrants. The crew, on the contrary, accuses the Libyan soldiers of having “ put the lives of these migrants in danger ” The 77 people rescued were on board three boats in difficulty. According to the IOM, more than 17,000 migrants were intercepted at sea and returned to Libya in 2023.

The German rescue boat Humanity 1 has, since the beginning of the week, still been immobilized by the Italian authorities, after rescuing 77 migrants in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya.…

Mediterranean: migrant rescue boat immobilized in Italy

The German rescue boat

Humanity 1

has, since the start of the week, still been immobilized by the Italian authorities, after rescuing 77 migrants in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya.

He will have to remain immobilized for 20 days.

The Humanity 1 boat in Catania in Sicily, November 6, 2022. © Salvatore Cavalli / AP

By: RFI Follow

The Italian authorities accuse the crew of this boat of having caused a clash with the Libyan coast guard who had intervened, following a call from Frontex, to intercept migrants.

The crew, on the contrary, accuses the Libyan soldiers of having “

put the lives of these migrants in danger

” by intervening in this way.

The SOS Humanity association considers that it is unfairly accused of having caused the collision and affirms that the members of the boat's crew as well as the rescuers were threatened by the Libyan coast guard, dispatched to the scene.

According to the press release from the German humanitarian association, rescue operations were already underway when the Libyan coast guard intervened.

They fired live ammunition, causing panic.

Many people then jumped or fell into the water.

One person died, deplores the NGO.

The 77 people rescued were on board three boats in difficulty.

Other migrants were forced to board the Libyan coast guard boat.

Families were thus separated, specifies the humanitarian association.

Since 2015, the Libyan coast guard, funded by the

European Union

, has been called upon to intercept migrants off the coast of

Libya

NGOs and migrants denounce interception operations taking place in international waters.

Frontex, the European border and coast guard agency, discusses its “

duty to inform the Libyan authorities of migrant boats in territorial waters

”, as its leader clarified this week.

According to the IOM, in 2023, more than 17,000 migrants were intercepted at sea and returned to Libya.

At least 962 migrants are dead and 1,563 others are missing.

In 2023, Libya, with the help of the IOM, organized the voluntary return of nearly 10,000 migrants to their countries of origin.

More and more NGOs denounce the violation of international law and the law of the sea on the part of the European Union when Frontex, helped by the Libyan and Tunisian coast guards, intercepts sub-Saharan migrants in the Mediterranean to push them back into these countries where they are subject to abuses.

François Gemenne, Belgian researcher and director of the Hugo Observatory dedicated to environmental migration at the University of Liège, considers that this European policy towards migrants is not the right one.

02:07

François Gemenne (Hugo Observatory): “The 1951 Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits this type of refoulement”

Houda Ibrahim

Read on InfoMigrantsMediterranean: Frontex almost systematically shares the positions of migrant canoes with Libyans, according to an investigation

Mediterranean: migrant rescue boat immobilized in Italy

Mediterranean: migrant rescue boat immobilized in Italy

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