Plane aids migrants in safe crossing

A HUMANITARIAN effort has taken to the skies to assist in the rescue of fleeing Libyan migrants.

Volunteers on board the Seabird watch from above as boats attempt the perilous crossing.

According to the UN, nearly 23,000 people have died or gone missing while attempting to reach Europe since 2014.

The twin-engine plane, owned by the German organisation Sea-Watch, is tasked with documenting human rights violations committed against migrants at sea and relaying distress cases to nearby ships and authorities who have increasingly ignored their pleas.

On a cloudy October afternoon, an approaching thunderstorm heightened the dangers for a white rubber boat spotted crowded with dozens of African migrants.

On board the Seabird, its tactical co-ordinator Eike Bretschneider communicated by radio with the only vessel nearby.

The captain of the Nour 2 agreed to change course and check up on the flimsy boat. But after seeing the boat had a Libyan flag, the migrants refused its assistance, the captain reported back.

“They say they only have 20 litres of fuel left,” the captain told the Seabird. “They want to continue on their journey.”

The small boat’s destination was the Italian island of Lampedusa, where tourists sitting in outdoor cafes were oblivious to what was unfolding some 60 nautical miles south of them.

Many migrants and refugees say they would rather die crossing to Europe than be returned to Libya where, upon disembarkation, they are placed in detention centres and often subjected to relentless abuse.

More than 49,000 migrants have reached Italian shores this year.