What is the current status of migrant rescues in the Mediterranean?

Deutsche Welle

By Wesley Dockery

14 August 2017

Thousands of migrants have been embarking on a perilous journey to the Mediterranean - their fate is determined by refugee rescue ships and government policy in Europe. Who are the major players involved?

What is the EU doing to tackle the influx of refugees?

The European Union Naval Force Mediterranean or Operation Sophia surveils smuggling and trafficking networks in the Mediterranean, searches suspicious vessels and apprehends suspected smugglers. In October 2016, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, commonly known as Frontex was formed. It coordinates responses between the various European coast guards, analyses risks and helps countries determine the best procedures to return migrants.

The Italian coast guard often plays a crucial role in saving migrants, because most of them on the Mediterranean are heading towards Italy. Between 2013 and 2014, the Italian government carried out the naval and air operation Operation Mare Nostrum to try and deal with migration to Europe. The Italian coast guard often carries out rescue missions to save migrants lost at sea.

Libya is the largest transit country for migrants , where many of them embark off the country's coastline for Europe, most often winding up in Italy. Libya accepted Italy's request in August to have a naval mission operate in Libya's coastal waters.

Which NGOs have been involved in migrant rescue operations?

Private NGOs have been operating in international waters, coordinating with the Italian coast guard, reacting to SOS calls, finding abandoned migrant boats and bringing the refugees to a safe harbor - often in Italy.

The rescue organizations involved include the Spanish organization Proactiva Open Arms, German organizations Sea-Eye and Jugend Rettet, Dutch charities Refugee Boat Foundation and Save the Children, Doctors without Borders (MSF), SOS Mediterranee, Migrant Offshore Aid station (MOAS) and the LifeBoat project's ship, Minden.

Meanwhile, NGOs involved in migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean have announced suspending their activities due to an announcement by the Libyan government on Sunday asserting its right over its search zone of 12 nautical miles, or 22.2. kilometers, along its coast.

What is the Libyan "search and rescue zone?"

Libya announced Sunday it would expand its maritime rescue zone in order to deal with the crisis. The Libyan government "is ready to put in place a search and rescue zone in its waters, work with Europe and invest in its coast guards," Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said.  "This sends a signal that the balance is being restored in the Mediterranean."

Doctors without Borders, Save the Children and Sea Eye have decided to suspend their rescue operations due to fears that the Libyan coastguard has become more aggressive in guarding its zone. When NGO vessels reach the border of Libyan waters, they often clash with the Libyan coastguard, which has even shot warning shots in the air to tell the NGO boats to stay away.

 "Under these circumstances, a continuation of our rescue work is not currently possible. It would be irresponsible towards our crews." Michael Buschheuer of the German NGO Sea Eye stated, saying the announcement was like to a threat to NGOs operating in the area.

However,  recently, Italian foreign minister Angelino Alfano and EU- refugee commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos have criticized a lack in political response, with Alfano saying the EU has failed to handle the migrant crisis. The two officials are demanding a better coordination and a joint effort in the fight against smuggling networks. NGOs, they say, should accept the code of conduct to join forces and help rescue migrants at sea.

What is the Italian code of conduct for migrant rescues?

The Italian government has in the past accused private NGOs of colluding with human smugglers. They claim that the smugglers know that NGOs will be right outside the 12-nautical-mile zone off the Libyan coast to rescue the migrants and bring them to a safe port in Europe. This is a concern for Italy, because many of the migrants will then land on Italian shores.

The Italian government then designed a code of conduct in August for the NGOs to combat the alleged collusion and NGOs have been divided on whether to sign onto the document or not. The document would demand that the rescue groups allow Italian police officers on board to monitor operations and rescue ships will have to turn on their tracking devices.

Who has signed the code of conduct so far?

Save the Children, MOAS and Sea-Eye have signed on while SOS Mediterranee, Doctors Without Borders, Sea-Watch and Jugend Rettet have opposed the document.

"In light of the more than 2,000 deaths at sea this year, what is need is not more rules, but greater rescue capacity," Germany's Sea Watch said in August.

The Save the Children  organization signed the document. "We would not have signed if even on single point would have comprised our effectiveness. This is not the case, not one single point of the code will hinder our activities," Valerio Neri, the director of the Italian wing of the organization said.

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Source:  http://www.dw.com/en/what-is-the-current-status-of-migrant-rescues-in-the-mediterranean/a-40087510

Italy applauds Libya's decision on migrant 'search and rescue' zone

Gulf Times

By Afp Rome

13 August 2017

The Italian government on Sunday welcomed Libya's decision to bar foreign vessels from a stretch of water off its coast, as both countries struggle with a migrant crisis that has engulfed Europe in recent years.

The comments from Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano came as a second non-governmental organisation announced it was suspending operations in the area in response to the Libyan move.

The Libyan government ‘is ready to put in place a search and rescue zone in its waters, work with Europe and invest in its coastguards,’ Alfano told La Stampa daily on Sunday.

‘This sends a signal that the balance is being restored in the Mediterranean.’

Libya's navy last week ordered foreign vessels to stay out of a coastal ‘search and rescue zone’ for migrants headed for Europe, saying the measure was aimed at non-governmental organisations it accuses of facilitating illegal migration.

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, and charities have dispatched ships to rescue them from drowning.

- 'Significant investment' -

Meanwhile, Libya and Italy -- where the vast majority of migrants land -- have worked together to stem the flow, with Italy also moving to rein in NGOs helping the multinational rescue operations by making them sign up to a new code of conduct.

‘We need a significant, I repeat a significant European economic investment in Libya and in Africa,’ Alfano said.

‘Europe has to decide if the theme of migration flows is an absolute priority on the same scale as the economy. For us, it is’.

The Libyan measure prompted the German aid group Sea Eye to announce on Sunday it is suspending its migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean, citing security concerns.

Sea Eye said in a statement that it was with ‘a heavy heart’ that it made its decision, after the Libyan government's ‘explicit threat against the private NGOs’.

‘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.

The move came one day after Doctors Without Borders (MSF) had said it was also halting the use of its largest boat in the area because of an ‘increasingly hostile environment for lifesaving rescue operations’.

Migrant aid ships have played a key role in assisting rescue operations.

Sea Eye said it has helped save some 12,000 lives since April 2016, and cautioned Sunday that the retreat of aid groups from Libya's coast was putting lives at risk.

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

But Alfano said MSF's decision ‘is also within the framework of a balance readjustment’.

The number of migrant arrivals in Italy in July was down dramatically on the same month last year, suggesting efforts to train up and better equip the North African country's coastguard could already be having an impact.

The interior ministry said 11,193 new arrivals had been registered in July, compared with 23,552 in July 2016.

Arrivals for the first seven months of this year were 95,214, up 0.78 percent on the same period last year.

Some 600,000 mostly African migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya since the start of 2014.


Source:  http://www.gulf-times.com/story/560021/Italy-applauds-Libya-s-decision-on-migrant-search-

A crisis waiting to happen

Times of Malta

By Frank Psaila

It might seem to many to be an innocuous incident, of a boat with a few migrants stranded outside our shores being denied access to our ports by the Maltese government. No big deal! It has happened before and it has happened on countless other occasions. Nothing special.

Or is it?

For the past four years, since this government came to power, Malta has been spared the constant flow of migrants entering our shores simply because the Italians have taken the lot with no questions asked. Frankly, Italy has constantly taken the brunt.

So this incident might seem to many like the odd case of a lonely boat having lost its way to Italy and instead ended up in Malta. It may already have fallen under the radar, but for those who follow migration closely it is a first sign of a crisis waiting to happen.

Only a few weeks ago, a Sicilian prosecutor said he had hard evidence of NGOs aiding and abetting human smugglers. During the past few years, NGOs like MOAS were allowed to conduct search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, even quite close to Libyan shores. There are plenty, and most of them, like MOAS, do sterling work.

However, the Sicilian prosecutor accused some of them (not MOAS) of having become simply a taxi service for migrants wanting to make the trip from Libyan waters to Italy.

Needless to say, this story hit the headlines almost instantly in Italy and it has been tough-going for Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni ever since. As expected, the pressure was ratcheted up mostly by right leaning parties and populists like Beppe Grillo of the Five-Star movement. Lately, even the centre-right Forza Italia has weighed in.


"What happens if the Italian government refuses to give access to other NGO boats in the coming days and weeks?"


The Socialist minster of the Interior Marco Minitti, who is the former Italian spy chief, moved swiftly to rein in the NGOs, generally by piling pressure on them to sign a code of conduct. Some did, others did not.

Meanwhile, the Italian authorities seized a German NGO’s rescue vessel alleging that its crew had taken on migrants directly from smugglers’ boats near Libya’s coast. Reportedly, the preventive seizure was based on evidence that emerged from three episodes in which crew members had contact with human smugglers operating boats crowded with migrants. One of these episodes happened in September 2016 and two in June. “There were contacts, meetings, understandings between the group’s boat and the smugglers,” the prosecutor said.

Now, the Italian government seems to have taken the decision not to allow access to its port to NGOs which continue to refuse to sign the code of conduct. This brings us to the lonely boat stranded just outside Malta waiting for the Maltese authorities to give it access to our port.

The Maltese refused to give it access and the Italians caved in eventually when they realised that the boat was owned by an NGO that had actually signed the Code of Conduct. It seems that at first the Italians thought this boat was owned by The Boat Refugee Foundation, an NGO that has consistently refused to sign the Code of Conduct, but it then transpired that the vessel had actually changed hands and is now owned by another NGO which did sign the code. When this was brought to the attention of the Italian government, it allowed the boat to enter Italy.

With a million migrants on the North African coast waiting to cross over to Europe and with a relatively new Italian Prime Minster constantly under immense pressure for taking ever-increasing numbers of migrants, the situation is bound to explode.

What happens if the Italian government refuses to give access to other NGO boats in the coming days and weeks? Will these boats then try to come to Malta?

If there was a hushed-up agreement between former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and our Prime Minster, Joseph Muscat, will the current Italian Prime Minister continue to honour it?

Very pertinent questions indeed. My advice to our Prime Minister is to be prepared. This is a crisis waiting to happen.

A lawyer by profession, Frank Psaila anchors Iswed fuq l-Abjad on NET TV.


Source: https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170813/opinion/A-crisis-waiting-to-happen.655521

German NGO halts refugee rescue operations off Libya

Aljazeera

By Afp

13 August 2017

Aid group suspends sea-borne missions after MSF halted the use of its largest boat because of 'hostile environment'.

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

Sunday's 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" of asylum seekers.

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

Tensions have risen 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 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.

But he cautioned that the retreat of the aid groups was putting lives at risk.

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

Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, however, welcomed Libya's stepped-up efforts to curb the flow of desperate people.

The Libyan government "is ready to put in place a search-and-rescue zone in its waters, work with Europe, and invest in its coast guards," Alfano told La Stampa daily on Sunday.

"This sends a signal that the balance is being restored in the Mediterranean."

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

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

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

Sea Eye says it has helped save some 12,000 lives since April 2016.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/german-ngo-halts-refugee-rescue-operations-libya-170813110202536.html

More NGOs follow MSF in suspending Mediterranean migrant rescues

Reuters

By Gavin Jones

13 August 2017

ROME (Reuters) - Two more aid groups have suspended migrant rescues in the Mediterranean, joining Doctors Without Borders, because they felt threatened by the Libyan coastguard.

Save the Children and Germany’s Sea Eye said on Sunday their crews could no longer work safely because of the hostile stance of the Libyan authorities. Doctors Without Borders - or Medecins sans Frontieres - cited the same concern when it said on Saturday it would halt Mediterranean operations.

“We leave a deadly gap in the Mediterranean,” Sea Eye’s founder Michael Busch Heuer warned on Facebook, adding that Libya had issued an “explicit threat” against non-government organisations operating in the area around its coast.

Libyan coastguard boats have repeatedly clashed with NGO vessels on the edge of Libyan waters, sometimes opening fire. The coastguard has defended such actions, saying the shooting was to assert control over rescue operations.

“In general, we do not reject (NGO) presence, but we demand from them more cooperation with the state of Libya ... they should show more respect to the Libyan sovereignty,” coastguard spokesman Ayoub Qassem told Reuters on Sunday.

Tension has also been growing for weeks between aid groups and the Italian government, which has suggested some NGOs are facilitating people smuggling, while Italy is trying to enhance the role of the Libyan coastguard in blocking migrant departures.

This month, Italy began a naval mission in Libyan waters to provide technical and operational support to its coastguard, despite opposition from factions in eastern Libya that oppose the U.N.-backed government based in Tripoli.

Immigration is dominating Italy’s political agenda before elections early next year, with public opinion increasingly hostile to migrants. Almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy over the past four years.

Most sailed from lawless Libya in flimsy vessels operated by people smugglers. More than 13,000 migrants have died trying to make the crossing.

Ships manned by charities have played a growing role in rescues, picking up more than a third of all migrants brought ashore so far this year, compared with less than one percent in 2014.

Aid groups and some Italian politicians warn that migrants intercepted by the Libyan coast guard are taken back to inhuman conditions in detention camps on the Libyan mainland.

However, prosecutors in Sicily have opened investigations against some NGOs, which they suspect of collaborating with people smugglers, and Rome has proposed a Code of Conduct setting stricter rules on how the groups can operate.

Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said in a newspaper interview on Sunday that Libya’s growing role in controlling its waters was curbing people trafficking and producing a welcome “readjustment” in the Mediterranean.

MSF’s decision to halt its rescue operations was part of this positive process, he told the newspaper La Stampa.

Save the Children said its rescue ship, the Vos Hestia, would dock in Malta until it received assurances about the intentions of the Libyan authorities.

Libya was trying to increase the range of the waters its ships controlled from 12 nautical miles around its coast to 70 nautical miles, the humanitarian organisation said.

"The necessary pause in operations from charity rescue ships likes ours and others will undoubtedly put lives at risk," its operations director, Rob MacGillivray, warned.

Libyan coastguard officials have previously said they have rights over operations dozens of miles beyond the territorial limit of 12 nautical miles, without clearly detailing the claims to such rights or how they could be enforced.

(This version of the article corrects name of German group to Sea Eye.)


Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-ngo-idUSKCN1AT0IZ

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