Rescued migrants cheer when told ‘Libya is over’
ABOARD THE AQUARIUS RESCUE SHIP: Rescues began at dawn
and by the end of the day, some 2,300 migrants had been pulled off 22 boats in the Mediterranean, with many rejoicing when rescuers told them that their long journey to Europe was almost over.
At one point on Thursday, 10 migrant boats could be seen floating on the horizon just outside Libya’s territorial waters.
A surveillance aircraft circled above and Libyan coast guard speed boats set fire to migrant boats once their passengers had been recovered, to stop smugglers from recovering and reusing them.
From the rescue ship Aquarius, operated by SOS Mediterranean and Doctors without Borders, two inflatable boats were launched to collect the migrants from overloaded rubber boats.
“In a few days you will be in Italy. Libya is over,” they were told in English or French, often drawing applause and cheers from those who were not too exhausted, seasick or traumatised from their journey.
Nigerians, Sudanese, Moroccans, and Bangladeshis were among those rescued by the Aquarius.
Smugglers have been cramming migrants onto boats in Libya at a record pace this year. Arrivals in Italy, where rescued migrants are brought, are up 35% on the same period last year.
Many have endured years-long journeys that took them across the Sahara desert to Libya, where often they fall into the hands of criminal groups that detain, extort, abuse, buy and sell them.
The lucky ones get onto boats and are rescued by European vessels.
To try to give the United Nations- backed government in Tripoli more power to stop people smuggling, Italy and the European Union are equipping and training the coast guard to patrol these waters and turn back migrant boats.
But humanitarian groups dispute this strategy, saying that returned migrants are put in detention centres controlled by the Tripoli government, where they can be held indefinitely in appalling conditions, with little food and no medical care.
The Libyan coast guard said it intercepted some 600 migrants on boats on Thursday.
“On the Libyan side, we will not always intercept the migrants unless we feel that the UN and EU are serious about deportation (to home countries),” said coast guard official Abdullah Tomia.