400 migrants intercepted off Libya coast: IOM
CAIRO: Libya’s coast guard intercepted over 400 Europe-bound migrants off the country’s Mediterranean coast and returned them to the capital of Tripoli over the past 24 hours, the UN migration agency said on Sunday.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) tweeted that 301 migrants on three boats were intercepted on Saturday and brought back to Tripoli. Another 105 migrants on two boats were intercepted on Sunday.
It said most of the migrants were taken to detention centres in Libya, where there are “serious concerns over their safety.”
Some migrants managed to escape at the disembarkation point, as the boats were brought back to shore, the IOM said.
“It is unacceptable for this to continue despite repeated calls to put an end to the return of vulnerable people to detention and abuse,” said Safa Msehli, a spokeswoman for the IOM.
In recent years, the European Union (EU) has partnered with the coast guard and other Libyan forces to stop the flow of migrants.
Rights groups say those efforts have left migrants at the mercy of brutal armed groups or confined in squalid and overcrowded detention centres that lack adequate food and water.
The EU agreed earlier this year to end an anti-migrant smuggler operation involving only surveillance aircraft and instead deploy military ships to concentrate on upholding a widely flouted UN arms embargo that’s considered key to winding down Libya’s relentless war.
Most migrants make the perilous journey in ill-equipped and unsafe rubber boats.
Separately, a group of 112 North African migrants was rescued from a sinking dinghy and landed in Malta early on Sunday, supervised by troops in special protective clothing against possible coronavirus infection, authorities said.
The dinghy was spotted in Malta’s search and rescue region north of Libya on Saturday. Those on board included several women and children. The armed forces said the nationalities of those aboard was not immediately known.
Maltese soldiers who transferred them to a patrol boat wore special suits to protect them from possible coronavirus infection. All the migrants were given a medical checkup upon landing before boarding buses to be taken to a reception centre.
Malta has seen a surge of migrant arrivals this year. Some 1,500 had arrived by early March, compared to 3,400 for the full year last year.
Italy has also seen a sharp annual rise since the start of the year. But arrivals have fallen off sharply since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis in northern Italy late last month, with only 43 arrivals so far recorded in March.