The ship of the German NGO Sea Watch will arrive around midnight at port of Trapani, which has been listed as a safe harbor for disembarking 457 people on board. “We are heading towards Trapani – the NGO said in a tweet – the safe harbor assigned by the Italian authorities to Sea Watch 4. The people they have rescued are very tried but happy to know that they will soon be able to disembark “. The migrants were rescued in six interventions carried out over 72 hours.
The conditions on board the boat were difficult, between wind and high waves. “But there is solidarity on board and we help each other. Having escaped death at sea and the capture of Libyans gives strength and hope. We hope to be able to land soon”.
On the NGO boat there are 166 unaccompanied minors, including six children, and 34 women. Yesterday the spokesman for the ship had launched an appeal in a video to ask for the assignment of a safe harbor: “We have over 450 people on board. People to whom Europe leaves no other way to escape than to risk their lives in the Mediterranean”.
“We are not asking for a favor, human rights are not a favor or an act of charity. The people aboard our ship have rights and they must be respected. They need a safe haven, and they need it now.”he added.
Yesterday another shipwreck occurred off the coast of Libya. The toll would be very heavy according to the Libyan Red Crescent: 50 victims off the coast of Zawiya. Initial news reported at least eleven deaths, whose bodies had been recovered immediately after the boat overturned; 12 survivors. Al Arabiya quotes Ahmed Makhlouf, head of the Libyan Red Crescent’s immigration department, as saying about fifty bodies have been recovered.
But the so-called Libyan Coast Guard denies it. The spokesman, Admiral Masoud Ibrahim, reached by telephone by Ansa, stressed that he had no information regarding the shipwreck off the coast of Libya. According to Ibrahim, it could be incorrect information.
Another illegal refoulement in Libya
Yesterday, 95 migrants who had been adrift on a boat off the coast of Libya for over 12 hours were intercepted and brought back to Tripoli by the Libyan Coast Guard. UNHCR personnel provided blankets, water and medical assistance. Two Italian merchant ships were also present on the spot and the NGOs had asked for their intervention to avoid the return to Libya. “We confirm that the people in danger have been illegally pushed back to Libya, the place from which they fled risking their lives. In the last call they told us that they would rather die at sea than return to the Libyan hell. Let’s hope they are all alive”, says Alarm Phone “.
“We hope to hear from them or their families soon, to find out how they are and what happened. We will also try to reconstruct how this illegal push-back was coordinated by Frontex, the Coast Guard and the Libyan forces paid by the EU to push back.”, the migrant call center added in another tweet.