Libya’s coast guard fired warning shots at a humanitarian ship trying to rescue a rubber dinghy carrying migrants off the Libyan coast, rescue group SOS Mediterranee said.
The group also said that the coast guard had returned 80 of these migrants to Libyan soil. The incident, which took place in international waters on Saturday, was the latest reckless maritime interception of migrants by the Libyan coast guard, which is trained and funded by the European Union to stem the flow of migrants to Europe, the group said. SOS Mediterranee, which is responsible for the vessel warned by the coast guard.
A coast guard spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. The “Ocean Viking”, a rescue ship chartered and managed by the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) SOS Mediterranee, was responding to a distress call to help the rubber boat carrying migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, when a guard ship arrived off the coast of Libya. at the scene, the group said.
The Coast Guard boat came “dangerously” close to the rescue vessel, threatening its crew “with firearms and shooting into the air,” SOS Mediterranee said in a statement.
The coast guard was filmed threatening the vessel and firing a gun into the air. In the footage, the coast guard ship is seen speeding up before turning, apparently to prevent the Ocean Viking from reaching the migrant ship, and at one point gunshots are heard.
“They can’t shoot us. We’re coming out of the water now,” a person on the Ocean Viking is heard saying.
Under threat, the Ocean Viking sailed away while the Libyan coast guard intercepted the ship and “forcefully” brought the migrants back to Libya, the rescue group said.
Seabird 2, a civilian surveillance plane owned by the German NGO Sea-Watch, reported seeing migrants fall from the rubber dinghy into the sea before the coast guard recovered them.
Saturday’s incident was the latest in threats or violent behavior by the Libyan coast guard reported by European NGOs operating in the Mediterranean Sea.
The coast guard tried in January to stop an SOS Mediterranee ship from returning to the Ocean Viking after a rescue operation, according to the group, but rescued migrants were able to safely board the mother ship.
In October, the NGO Sea-Watch accused the Libyan coast guard of threatening to shoot down its Seabird surveillance plane.
The Libyan Coast Guard is trained and funded by the European Union as part of efforts to stem the flow of migrants from the North African country to the Italian coast.
Libya has become in recent years the main transit point for immigrants seeking a better quality of life in Europe.
The oil-rich country was plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed autocrat Moammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Human smugglers take advantage of this chaos to transport migrants across the country’s long borders, then load them onto ill-equipped rubber dinghies and other vessels for risky sea voyages to Europe.
According to official data, in 2023 alone more than 25,000 immigrants landed on the Italian coast, more than triple the 6,500 in the same period in 2022.
Meanwhile, activists for the rescue boat Louise Michel, funded by street artist Banksy, said the boat was stopped on Friday in the waters off the Italian island of Lampedusa after rescuing 180 people in three separate operations. In one, 34 people had been pulled from the water after their boat capsized.
In recent months, the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made it difficult for humanitarian ships to operate.
Meloni’s allies say the presence of so many rescue ships in the Mediterranean encourages migrants to risk their lives on smugglers’ ships.
Source: TSF
