2024-04-15 12:24:22
In a statement on Thursday, 22 Maltese organizations and academics called on Malta to stop returning people at sea to Libya.
The claim came after allegations that 83 asylum seekers were pushed to be “kidnapped” from a search and rescue area in Malta and returned to Libya, according to the statement.
The statement explained that instead of rescuing the asylum seekers and transporting them to a safe port, the Libyan Coast Guard “intercepted” the people on the boat in Maltese waters “by force.”
Maltese organizations expressed “deep concern” about reports claiming that their country “somehow allowed the Libyan authorities to enter the rescue zone in Malta and return people to Libya.”
The statement justified its objection to returning migrants to Libya as “an unsafe country, due to the widespread and ongoing conflict, and because it does not yet have a government capable of providing security and stability for the country and all the people living in it,” according to the organizations’ expression.
The statement added that “human rights violations of the most horrific nature occur daily in Libya, and migrants and refugees are not safe there.”
Malta was previously accused many times of failing to help migrants, and in 2021, Sea Watch International published footage that it said showed people on a “Libyan Coast Guard” boat opening fire on a migrant ship and trying to ram it several times.
Source: Times of Malta
2024-04-15 12:24:22