UNHCR urges Europe to allow over 500 rescued migrants to disembark
● ‘This is a race against time’ UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean
The UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling on European governments to allow the immediate disembarkation of over 500 people stranded at sea in the vicinity of Malta. A total of 507 people were rescued in the Central Mediterranean over recent days and remain stranded at sea on two NGO boats as Italy and Malta continue to deny them access to their ports.
By the time of print last night, neither Malta nor Italy had acceded to the request.
French charity group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a tweet that it had completed ‘a critical rescue’ of another 105 people onto the Ocean Viking, raising the total number of migrants on board ship to 356.
Another 150 migrants remain on board the Spanish charity vessel, the Proactiva Open Arms.
Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, reiterated yesterday that he was intent on ensuring the two migrant ships did not enter Italian ports. Malta’s Home Affairs Minister, Michael Farrugia, meanwhile, tweeted a photo of a dead migrant and a half-dead companion aboard an adrift rubber dinghy, saying: This is what the Armed Forces of Malta does each and every day. We cannot do this alone.”
Many of those awaiting a safe port are survivors of appalling abuses in Libya and are from refugee-producing countries. They are in need of humanitarian assistance and some have already expressed an intention to seek international protection, the UNHCR said yesterday.
“This is a race against time,” said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean. “Storms are coming and conditions are only going to get worse. To leave people who have fled war and violence in Libya on the high seas in this weather would be to inflict suffering upon suffering. They must be immediately allowed to dock, and allowed to receive muchneeded humanitarian aid.”
At the time of going to print last night, 151 people remained on board the Open Arms boat while 356 people more have been rescued in recent days by the Ocean Viking.
Let’s lead by example - Delia
Taking to Facebook yesterday afternoon, PN leader Adrian Delia also appealed for action, saying, “Let’s lead by example, rise above populism, and put human lives first and foremost.”
He said that as Malta is a small country, “we cannot, physically, assume the responsibility of larger states when it comes to the distribution of displaced people.
“Unfortunately, displaced men, women and children are being used as political pawns - or rather as human pawns. This is totally unacceptable. While we are enjoying the summer vacations, as is our right, men, women and especially children are stranded on rescue boats in the scorching Mediterranean heat. Political action to do the right thing is lacking.
“As leaders, we have a moral obligation to speak out for the most vulnerable and perishing. We need to rise above populism where human lives are concerned and do the right thing.
“As the Opposition party in Malta, we urge the government to stop the current, inhumane, situation of people waiting, desperately, to be given shelter. That should then be followed with immediate action by EU member states to step in and distribute people accordingly. But first things first - and human beings come first.
“As Opposition leader, I urge the government to take in the vulnerable people currently stranded on rescue ships. We are willing to help the government, politically, to make Malta’s case, forcefully, with our European counterparts. Malta is a small country but with a big heart.”
Immediately provide a port of safety - UNHCR
“A port of safety should be immediately provided and responsibility shared amongst states for hosting them after they have disembarked,” the UNHCR insisted yesterday.
The agency recalled how many Europeans leaders expressed their shock at the events last month when more than 50 people died in an airstrike on a detention centre in Tajoura, Libya, and as many as 150 others died in the largest Mediterranean shipwreck of 2019.
“These sentiments must now be translated in to meaningful solidarity with people fleeing from Libya,” the UNHCR stressed yesterday. “This includes providing access to territory and asylum procedures to people seeking international protection.”
Nearly 600 people have died or gone missing in the Central Mediterranean in 2019. In comparison to the Central Mediterranean, far more people are arriving, and far fewer people dying, on the western and eastern Mediterranean routes, the UNHCR said.
“Increased search and rescue capacity on the Central Mediterranean is needed. In this context, the role of NGO boats should be acknowledged and supported. Their efforts are saving lives, and they should not be stigmatised nor criminalised.
“More efforts are needed to move refugees out of harm’s way in Libya. No one should feel they are better off risking their life, and the lives of their families, on these often fatal boat journeys. Faster and increased safe and legal pathways to asylum are needed, including evacuations and resettlement.”
The UNHCR reiterated that intense fighting in Libya, as well as widespread reports of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, means it cannot be considered a safe port, and no one should be returned there.”
On Monday, the Armed Forces of Malta coordinated a medical evacuation of eight migrants aboard the Open Arms ship. Open Arms said they were two women - one with a brain tumour and the other with pneumonia - and six of their relatives who had been transferred to Malta on Monday.
The ship’s crew had also rescued a further 39 migrants on Saturday. The Government of Malta said it would take them because the rescue had taken place in its search-and-rescue area, but refused to disembark the others on board, who had been rescued outside the area of Malta’s responsibility. The aid group’s founder declined the offer, saying a safe port needed to be found for all the rescued passengers.