Aid groups halt rescue operations off Libyan coast
Aid groups suspended migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean days after authorities in Tripoli announced an exclusion zone off the Libyan coast.
German group Sea Eye suspended operations yesterday after Medicins Sans Frontieres halted the use of its largest boat because of an “increasingly hostile environment”.
Sea Eye said it was with “a heavy heart” that it decided to follow suit after the Libyan government’s “explicit threat against private NGOs”.
On Thursday, Libya’s UNbacked Government of National Accord announced the zone that would bar rescues.
It did not say how wide the exclusion zone would be, but it was likely to extend beyond the 20-kilometre territorial limit.
“We want to send out a clear message to all those who infringe Libyan sovereignty and lack respect for the coastguard and navy,” said naval spokesman Gen Ayoub Qassemhe.
From now on, he said, rescue boats must “obtain authorisation from the Libyan state even for rescue operations”.
MSF is one of eight non-government organisations that operate rescue boats just off the 20km limit, rescuing migrants who leave the Libyan coast in flimsy craft heading for Italy.
The humanitarian group said it was withdrawing its rescue ship Prudence on advice from Italian maritime authorities.
“MSF has decided to temporarily suspend the search and rescue activity of its ship,” the group said. But its doctors would continue to operate on the boat of another charity.
The zone marks a new determination to halt people-smuggling, with the North African country the centre of the trafficking of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
More than 95,000 migrants have crossed from Libya to Italy this year, with 2,300 drowning in the attempt, after 165,000 crossed last year.
A Spanish NGO, Proactiva Open Arms, released video last week which it said showed a Libyan coastguard vessel firing warning shots near one of its rescue boats.
Some Libyan officials say migrant rescue boats act as a magnet for people-smugglers. Libya is facing growing numbers of migrants arriving to seek passage to Europe, and has drawn criticism in recent weeks from groups who say there are human rights abuses in its migrant detention camps. Libyan officials are also concerned that migrant-smuggling has become a branch of organised crime in the country.
The GNA’s concern is shared in Italy, where more than 600,000 migrants have arrived since 2014.
This month Italy deployed two warships to assist Libya’s coastguard in intercepting migrant smugglers, a move condemned by the GNA’s rival government, the House of Representatives, whose army chief is investigating migrant-rescue groups to see if they co-ordinate with Libyan people-smugglers.