Dec 19, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
The death
of 61 people, who drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libyan shores during
the night between 14 and 15 December, is “the direct result of Europe’s
migration policies”, said Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The NGO, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement today that the incident was a “completely preventable tragedy and once again shows the consequences of Europe’s murderous policies of non-assistance and disgraceful outsourcing of border management”.
“It cannot
be accepted, that a boat with 86 people in distress, only 18 nautical
miles, less than 45 minutes from the Libyan shores, has resulted in the deaths
of 61 people, including children,” says Virginia Mielgo, MSF project
coordinator on board the MSF search and rescue ship, Geo Barents.
“By handing
over the responsibility of its borders management to the Libyan Coast Guard,
who once again clearly showed their incapacity to coordinate safe search and
rescue activities and prevent loss of lives at sea, European governments have
rendered themselves complicit in their deaths,” she added.
According
to MSF, despite alerts to both the Italian, Maltese and Libyan rescue
authorities of the perilous situation, “it was only after eight hours that a
merchant vessel, Vos Triton, eventually arrived around the boat in distress.”
“In
addition to the insufficient state-led search and rescue capacity in the
Central Mediterranean, the absence of NGOs rescue vessels in the area that
night is the result of the reckless and constant obstruction of civilian search
and rescue work by the Italian authorities over the past year,” said MSF.
“Two NGO
vessels, including Geo Barents, that were in the area where the shipwreck
occurred only two days earlier were forced to navigate to faraway ports north
to Italy with less than 40 survivors on board each.”
“As we were
once again sent to an unnecessary distant port in Genova, with very few people
on board, we were forced to follow helplessly as alerts to the authorities went
unanswered for hours. Although it was clear that people’s lives were in
imminent danger, nothing was done to help until it was too late,” says
Mielgo.
MSF
revealed that the 25 survivors of the shipwreck were “forcibly sent back to
Tripoli, in Libya, where horrific violence and abuses inflicted on
migrants, asylum seekers and refugees have been widely documented by MSF and
others.”
“A risk
that the European authorities were fully aware of when Vos Triton, intervened –
the same vessel that has already been accused of illegally pushing back 270
people to Libya in 2021,” MSF added.
“As soon as
we noticed Vos Triton was heading towards Libya, we reached out to them to
remind them about the principle of non-refoulment and that disembarking people
in Libya would be unlawful,” explains Mielgo. “Hearing a few hours later that
not only did this illegal push back take place, but that over 60 people had
died during that night was heartbreaking.”
“With this
new tragedy, European governments cannot hide anymore from the clear
consequences of their inhumane political choices. A radical change in Europe is
needed now to adopt migration policies that save lives instead of sacrificing
them,” says Mielgo.
Already
this year, close to 2,300 men, women and children2 have died or gone
missing while trying to cross the Central Mediterranean to Europe.
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