Second group suspends migrant rescues in Mediterranean due to Libyan threats

The Globe and Mail

By Frances D’Emilio

13 August 2017

A second humanitarian group in two days has reluctantly decided to suspend migrant rescues in the Mediterranean Sea due to Libyan threats, and other charities with rescue ships on Sunday were considering doing the same.

Germany-based Sea-Eye said it made the decision to halt its water rescues “with a heavy heart,” but for the sake of its crew’s safety.

Sea-Eye cited the “changed security situation in the Western Mediterranean” following the Tripoli-based government’s announcement it was extending its territorial waters.

Save the Children said its rescue ship was staying in Malta after Libya declared that its search-and-rescue area now will extend far beyond the 12 nautical miles Italy and other countries consider the limit of its territorial waters.

Libya also proclaimed its intention to “extend its control and prohibition of NGO ships in international waters,” according to Save the Children, which is evaluating whether to stop its ship’s patrols.

On Saturday, Doctors Without Borders also cited Libyan threats in suspending its sea rescue activities. A Spanish aid group’s rescue ship reported that the Libyan coast guard last week fired warning shots at them while the vessel was in international waters.

Humanitarian groups worry that if migrants are blocked at sea after setting out from Libyan shores in smugglers’ unseaworthy boats, they risk drowning without rescue ships nearby. They also fear that migrants will be mistreated in Libyan detention centres if they are thwarted from leaving the North African country.

The Italian Parliament recently approved the centre-left government’s request to send a naval mission to Libya to help the Libyan coast guard patrol its coast for migrant smugglers.

In an interview published Sunday in La Stampa daily newspaper, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano was quoted as saying, “We must avoid deaths at sea by reducing the departures” from Libya.

“We made two choices: that of taking away criminal earnings from traffickers – because fewer persons departing mean the traffickers earn less – and that of financing the UN agencies” working with refugees and migrants to “assure respect for human rights in the Libyan camps.”

Some rescued migrants have told Italian judicial authorities that while waiting months for a chance to get on the smugglers’ boats, they suffered from scarce rations, forced labour, rape, beating and torture.

Save the Children said it was seeking guarantees it could safely carry out effective rescue operations, and expressed worry for “the possibility that migrants are brought back to Libya, that’s not considered a safe place where fundamental human rights are respected.”

After hundreds of thousands of migrants rescued from foundering boats were brought to Italian ports in the last few years, Italians have become worried about the costs of caring for asylum-seekers in a country where unemployment is high and the economy is flat.

With elections due next year, Italian politicians of most stripes are advocating strategies to choke off the flow of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea.


Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/second-group-suspends-migrant-rescues-in-mediterranean-due-to-libyan-threats/article35977745/

German NGO halts migrant rescue operations off Libya

The Local

By AFP

13 August 2017

The German aid group Sea Eye on Sunday said it was suspending its migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean, citing security concerns after Libya barred foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast.

The announcement comes a day after Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was halting the use of its largest boat in the area because of an "increasingly hostile environment for lifesaving rescue operations".

 In a statement, Sea Eye said it was with "a heavy heart" that it had decided to follow suit following the Libyan government's "explicit threat against the private NGOs".

Tensions have been on the rise since the Libyan navy on Thursday ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal search and rescue zone, a measure it said was specifically aimed at non-governmental groups.

Libyan authorities have accused charities of aiding human smugglers with their rescues at sea, hampering efforts to crack down on the illegal migration route.

"Under these circumstances, a continuation of our rescue work is not currently possible. It would be irresponsible towards our crews," Sea Eye founder Michael Buschheuer said.

Italy, which has borne the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis this year, has also moved to rein in NGOs helping the multinational search and rescue operation by making them sign up to a new code of conduct.

Sea Eye said it would continue to monitor the "changed security situation" off the Libyan coast.

"We leave behind a deadly gap in the Mediterranean," Buschheuer warned.

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.

Migrant aid ships have played a key role in assisting the rescue operations, and Sea Eye says it has helped save some 12,000 lives since April 2016.


Source: https://www.thelocal.de/20170813/german-ngo-halts-migrant-rescue-operations-off-libya

Migrant aid group suspends rescue ship off Libya, cites risk

Mail Online

By Associated Press

12 August 2017

ROME (AP) - Doctors Without Borders said Saturday it is temporarily suspending the activity of its rescue ship due to alleged threats from Libya's coast guard, which has become more aggressive in patrolling the coasts where human traffickers launch boats crowded with migrants desperate to reach Europe.

The humanitarian group said the rescue coordination center operated by Italy's coast guard had informed it on Friday that the Libyan threats pose a security risk. The group added that Libyan authorities declared their own rescue area, extending into international waters, the same day.

Doctors Without Borders says its medical crew will keep working from a ship operated by another aid group while its own vessel, Prudence, is not involved in migrant rescues.

The Italian government agreed last month to dispatch a naval mission to assist the Libyan coast guard with anti-smuggler patrols. Hundreds of thousands of rescued asylum-seekers, many of them fleeing poverty in Africa, have been brought to safety in Italian ports in recent years.

The government also has pressured rescue groups to sign on to rules that would forbid them from entering Libyan waters to save migrants without specific authorization and require them to agree that armed Italian judicial authorities may board their ships.

Italy is requiring groups operating rescue ships to subscribe to the rules else or risk not being allowed to dock in Italian ports. Doctors Without Borders has refused to endorse the rules, while some other humanitarian groups have given their approval.

Critics of the new policies say they could put lives at risk by delaying rescues in Libyan waters. They also contend that if the Libyan coast guard blocks smugglers' boats, migrants will be returned to inhumane conditions, including beatings and forced labor, in Libyan detention centers.

"If humanitarian ships are pushed out of the Mediterranean, there will be fewer ships ready to aid persons before they drown," Doctors Without Borders Italy President Loris De Filippi said in a statement. "And whoever doesn't drown will be intercepted and brought back to Libya, which we know to be a place of absent legality, arbitrary detention and extreme violence."

A Spanish humanitarian group, Proactiva Open Arms, said the Libyan coast guard ordered its rescue ship to move north and fired warning shots last week when the vessel was involved in search-and-rescue work outside of Libyan territory.

Humanitarian groups have had ships monitoring the Mediterranean Sea outside of Libya's territorial waters to help rescue migrants from smugglers' boats in distress. The Italian coast guard coordinates the rescues, including those conducted by naval vessels from other European countries.

Anti-migrant sentiment has been rising in Italy, where newcomers from Africa and the Middle East are being blamed for crimes.

Italian news agency ANSA reported Saturday that Italian authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a Somali man who had applied for asylum in Sicily. The asylum-seeker was identified as one of some 50 Somalis wanted for the 2011 hijacking of an Italian oil tanker off the coast of Somalia.

ANSA said the man's fingerprints matched ones taken from the hijacked tanker. The ship's 22-person crew was held for ransom for several months. ANSA, citing court documents, said $11.5 million was paid for the ship's release.


Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-4784864/Migrant-aid-group-suspends-rescue-ship-Libya-cites-risk.html

MSF suspends use of largest migrant rescue boat

Mail Online

By Afp

12 August 2017

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid group said Saturday it was halting operations of its largest rescue ship for migrants in the Mediterranean after Libya barred foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast.

"With NGOs more and more restricted in the Med & the #EU determined to trap people in #Libya, we've put the #Prudence on standby," MSF said on Twitter.

Libya's navy this week ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal "search and rescue zone" for migrants headed for Europe.

Navy spokesman General Ayoub Qassem said on Thursday that the measure was aimed at non-governmental organisations "which pretend to want to rescue illegal migrants and carry out humanitarian actions".

MSF said that while it would continue to provide assistance to other rescue operations, it was suspending the use of the Prudence -- one of the largest NGO vessels in the Mediterranean that rescued 1,500 people in May alone.

"European states and the Libyan authorities are jointly implementing a roadblock for people looking for security," MSF Italy president Loris De Filippi said in a statement.

"It's an unacceptable attack on the lives and dignity of people."

Italy, which has borne the brunt of Europe's migrant crisis this year, warned NGOs earlier this month that they would not be allowed to continue working in the Mediterranean if they did not sign up to new rules governing their operations.

Under a new code of conduct drawn up as a German vessel was impounded for allegedly aiding people smugglers, boats would have to have an Italian police officer on board monitoring activities.

Most aid agencies conducting rescues off the coast of Libya have signed up to the agreement, but not MSF.

Some 600,000 mostly African migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya since the start of 2014, putting the country's reception facilities under strain and the centre-left government under pressure with elections looming next year.

Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying people traffickers for the journey, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.


Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-4785162/MSF-suspends-use-largest-migrant-rescue-boat.html

Anti-migrant ship ignores help from rescue activists

Mail Online

By Afp

11 August 2017

Anti-immigration activists whose boat was reported in trouble said Friday they had got their engines going again, after a migrant rescue ship said it had been dispatched to help.

The C-Star, which has vowed to expose what it describes as "collaboration" between privately-funded rescue ships and people traffickers, said earlier on Twitter it had "developed a minor technical problem during the night", leaving it adrift but not in distress.

Germany's Sea-Eye, one of nine NGOs involved in migrant search and rescue (SAR) operations and a target of the C-Star's campaign, said it had been "asked by the MRCC (command centre in Rome) to assist the ship".

But later Friday a spokesman for C-Star told AFP that the boat, which had only just got going against after being blocked for five days off the coast of Tunisia, simply stopped its engines to resolve a technical problem.

This was what set off a signal to other boats in the nearby area, but not asking for help, he said.

The Sea-Eye returned to its previous route and activities once it was told its help was not needed by the C-Star.

The Italian coast guard could not be reached for a comment.

The C-Star has been plagued with problems since its mission began last month. It was initially refused permission to travel through the Suez Canal, before later being blocked over legal questions in Cyprus.

After finally making it to Libya's SAR zone, it needed to refuel but found itself stuck off the coast of Tunisia earlier this week after fishermen and a powerful Tunisian union refused to allow passage.

The 40-metre long ship, which is flying under a Mongolian flag, is leased by the far-right group "Generation Identity".

Funded by Internet-collected donations of more than $212,000 (180,000 euros), the Austrian, French, German and Italian activists on board have vowed to ensure migrants rescued at sea off Libya be returned to Africa.

Two NGO ships were badgered at sea by the C-Star last week with a radio message telling them to "leave the rescue zone" and "stop acting as an incentive for human traffickers".

The message echoed one transmitted Thursday by the Libyan navy, which has banned any unauthorised foreign ships from entering the SAR zone off its coast.


Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-4783372/Anti-migrant-ship-ignores-help-rescue-activists.html

Doctors Without Borders decries 'blockade' on boat migrants in Libyan waters

Deutsche Welle

12 August 2017


Doctors Without Borders says "hostility" from Libya has forced it to suspend offshore rescues of boat migrants by its ship, Prudence. Libya recently told non-governmental groups to stay away.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF in French) accused the European Union and Libya of creating a "blockade" in Libyan coastal waters that would result in more Mediterranean deaths and more migrants stuck in Libyan detention.

Last month, Italy approved a naval mission in Libyan waters to train and support the coastguard of the country's UN-backed government in Tripoli, whose authority is challenged by other Libyan factions.

NGOs being shut out?

Earlier this week, Libya said it was establishing a "search and rescue" zone off its coast - a move MSF said would extend Libyan patrols into international waters, where humanitarian groups pick up asylum seekers from flimsy boats.

Previously, non-governmental groups (NGOs) had conducted search and rescue operations as close as 11 nautical miles off the Libyan mainland.

The MSF, with its vessel Prudence, is one of nine NGOs involved in migrant rescues in the Mediterranean – rivalled by an anti-migrant group – since the Balkans route was virtually shut to refugees from early 2016

Assault on dignity

MSF's Director of Operations, Brice de le Vingne, on Saturday accused European states and Libyan authorities of "jointly implementing a blockade on the ability of people to seek safety" and assaulting their dignity.

"The recent developments represent another worrying element of an increasingly hostile environment for lifesaving operations," he said.

Another aid group active in the Mediterranean, Proactiva Open Arms, also criticized the EU, with its founder Oscar Camps tweeting: "the first NGO out, this is just what the EU wants."

Loris De Filippi, president of MSF's Italian arm said, "We are suspending our activities because now we feel that the threatening behavior by the Libyan coastguard is very serious ... we cannot put our colleagues in danger."

MSF said medical staff would, however, keep working from a ship operated by another aid group, SOS Mediterranee, while the Prudence remained idle.

'Fewer illegal immigrants'

Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League, asserted that MSF's move would result in "thousands fewer illegal immigrants for Italians to maintain."

If migrants are intercepted while trying to cross to Europe and are then taken back to Libya, they often face slave labor and sexual violence, according to multiple reports.

13,000 deaths in four years

Over the past four years, almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy, the vast majority setting sail from largely lawless Libya in flimsy vessels operated by people smugglers. More than 13,000 migrants have died trying to make the crossing.

General Khalifa Hifter, a Bengazi-based commander who rivals Tripoli and is aligned with Libya's eastern-region parliament, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Saturday the presence of Italian military vessels in Libyan waters was unacceptable.

The newspaper quoted Hifter as saying he would not attack them.

The UN's migration agency counted 114,000 migrant arrivals since the beginning of 2017 until July 30, with almost 85 percent arriving in Italy.

ipj/jlw (APE, AFP, dpa)


Source: http://www.dw.com/en/doctors-without-borders-decries-blockade-on-boat-migrants-in-libyan-waters/a-40069387

MSF suspends Mediterranean rescues as migrant dispute mounts

Reuters

By Gavin Jones

12 August 2017

ROME (Reuters) - Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Saturday it was suspending its migrant rescues in the Mediterranean because it felt threatened by the Libyan coastguard and the Italian government’s policies have made its job harder.

The aid group’s decision is the latest development in mounting tensions between Rome and NGOs as migration dominates Italy’s political agenda ahead of elections early next year.

“We are suspending our activities because now we feel that the threatening behavior by the Libyan coastguard is very serious ... we cannot put our colleagues in danger,” the president of MSF’s Italian arm Loris De Filippi told Reuters.

Almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy over the past four years, the vast majority setting sail from lawless Libya in flimsy vessels operated by people smugglers. More than 13,000 migrants have died trying to make the crossing.

Charity boats have played a growing role in rescues, picking up more than a third of all migrants brought ashore so far this year against less than one percent in 2014.

However, Italy fears the groups are facilitating people smuggling and encouraging migrants to make the passage, and it has proposed a Code of Conduct governing how they operate.

Some groups, including MSF, have refused to sign the code.

They object to a requirement that Italian police officers be on their boats and that the boats must take migrants to a safe port themselves, rather than transferring them to other vessels to allow smaller boats to stay in the area for further rescues.

MSF operates one rescue ship in the Mediterranean, the Prudence, currently docked in the Sicilian port of Catania.

In the last six weeks the number of migrant arrivals in Italy has slowed sharply and Rome has begun collaborating more closely with the Libyan coastguard, which De Filippi said was threatening the NGOs and preventing them from working.

He said the Libyan coastguard had demanded the NGOs should leave an area of up to hundreds of kilometers around its coast, whereas previously they had been allowed to conduct search and rescue operations as close as 11 nautical miles to the mainland.

“Last year the coastguard fired 13 shots on our boat and that was in a situation that was much calmer than the present one,” said De Filippi.

He said MSF would continue its collaboration with another aid group, SOS Mediterranee, which operates a rescue ship in the Mediterranean with MSF doctors on board.

De Filippi said the Rome government’s Code of Conduct for NGOs and its support for the Libyan coastguard showed it was now mixing the humanitarian goal of saving lives with “a political and military intention” of reducing arrivals.

“We refuse to be co-opted into a system that blocks people from seeking safety and protection,” MSF tweeted, adding that the European Union’s immigration policies showed it was “determined to trap people in Libya.”

Oscar Camps, the founder of Proactiva Open Arms, another aid group active in the Mediterranean, also took aim at the EU, tweeting: "the first NGO out, this is just what the EU wants."

An Italian government spokesman was not immediately available to comment, while Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, said MSF's move meant there would be "thousands fewer illegal immigrants for Italians to maintain."

Last week Italy began a naval mission in Libyan waters to train and support its coastguard, despite opposition from factions in eastern Libya that oppose the U.N.-backed government based in Tripoli.

General Khalifa Haftar, a commander aligned with an Eastern-based parliament, told Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Saturday the presence of Italian military vessels in Libyan waters was unacceptable but he would not attack them.

Editing by David Evans and Stephen Powell


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-idUSKCN1B52Q2?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29