SecondEarlier this year, in June, somewhere in the vast central Mediterranean, a MSF team on a rescue ship received a distress call.The engine of a small boat carrying asylum seekers Libya It has broken down, and the boat is entering water.
These are the first dramatic scenes Unsafe passage – The Guardian documentary film made by Ed Ou for the Outlaw Ocean Project was released today – but they are also the first moments in a race against time, repeating again and again in the sea that separates Europe and Africa.
If the Libyan Coast Guard arrives on the ship before the rescuers, the refugees will be pushed back to the Libyan detention center at gunpoint. If neither Doctors Without Borders nor Libyans reach the ship, others will die in this huge water cemetery that has taken thousands of asylum seekers: so far this year alone, more than 1,300 people are trying to cross the Mediterranean Died or disappeared while in the middle.
but Europe Not only did they turn a deaf ear to the tragedy, but it also made the rescue of these people and the lives of rescuers more and more complicated.
In February 2017, Europe handed over the responsibility for overseeing rescue operations in the Mediterranean to Libya.this trade, Occurred between Rome and Tripoli, aiming to reduce the flow of immigration to Europe. Since then, Italy has spent millions of euros to train the Libyan Coast Guard and provide them with a large number of patrol ships.The goal is to help them prevent migrants from reaching Sicily and send them back to Libya, where they often Suffer violence and torture In the detention center.
The result was catastrophic, exposing the contradictions of the agreement and the EU’s hypocrisy on the immigration crisis.
The most important paradox is Libya, a politically unstable country that is still licking its wounds after the civil war. Italy Indirectly defines Libya as a safe country, although Italian authorities often provide humanitarian protection to asylum seekers in recognition of their torture and sexual abuse in Libya. Although Rome criticized Libya for abusing refugees, just last year, Italy renewed its agreement with the country’s coast guard.
The Coast Guard is made up of many former militiamen and is said to have close ties with human traffickers. In October 2020, the Tripoli authorities Arrested Abd al-Rahman Milad, known as the Coast Guard Commander Bija, was accused of participating in the drowning of dozens of people. In 2018, the United Nations accused Bija of being a facilitator of human trafficking and part of a criminal network. The Libyan authorities dropped the charges against him in April on the grounds of lack of evidence, and Milad denied any connection with the smuggling of people. Last year, an investigation by the Italian newspaper Avvenire stated that he attended a series of official meetings in Italy in May 2017.
According to reports, their method is barbaric. In July of this year, Lens appears It appears to show that the Libyan Coast Guard opened fire on a small wooden boat in distress with family members on board and attempted to hit it. The coast guard vessel is PB 648 Ras Jadir, one of several patrol boats provided by Italy to Libya.
Since Europe got rid of the Mediterranean rescue operation, NGOs have filled this gap. Thanks to donations, dozens of charities have placed crews on the ships and saved thousands of people. MSF alone has assisted more than 80,000 people.
However, in the past four years, charities have been the subject of dozens of investigations launched by Italian prosecutors against them, accusing aid NGOs of participating in human smuggling. As Europe cracks down on immigration, rescuers find themselves facing prosecution as rescuing refugees is increasingly criminalized. In 2019, Italy issued a safety law fine For ships that bring asylum seekers to Italy without permission, up to 50,000 Euros (£42,700).
Most of these investigations were eventually cancelled, but these ships are still being held in Italian ports, unable to help people at sea-they are dying every day. Since 2017, the former fishing boat Iuventa, operated by the German non-governmental organization Jugend Rettet, has been rotted on the dock in Trapani after the prosecutor ordered it to be confiscated.
During the investigation of Juventa, the Italian police eavesdropped on some conversations between Libya and the Italian Coast Guard. In various recordings, many Libyan officials are indifferent to the plight of asylum seekers and international law. Is a response The Tripoli Coast Guard Commander responded to Mayday’s call: “Today is a day off. This is a holiday. Maybe we can be there tomorrow.” (The Coast Guard later stated that he could not answer questions related to this because “it is difficult to find these incidents. Recording”.)
In a just world, with these evidences, a country that claims to be democratic and respect human rights should reverse the trial—put the Libyan authorities in the dock and charities in the witness box.
On the contrary, we are still counting the death toll: Estimated 18,580 Since 2014, in this most insecure passage to Europe.
