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First refugees rescued off the Libyan coast in 8 weeks as the Sea Watch 3 saves the lives of over 90 people

EU using chartered planes to organise the Libyan Coastguard's interceptions of refugee boats, NGOs warn

RESCUERS today carried out their first mission off the coast of Libya  since Italy seized two charity ships eight weeks ago.

Sea Watch 3, a vessel operated by German charity Sea Watch, reported at about noon that it had saved close to 100 people, 29 nautical miles from Zawya.

“Several of the rescued people received immediate medical treatment,” Sea Watch tweeted after the rescue.

“Our search plane, Moonbird, has spotted another boat in distress with 70 people. The operation’s not over yet.”

Sea Watch activist Chris Grodotzki said: “Many European politicians are currently loudly denouncing racist police violence in the US.

“But out here, where the respect for black lives has decreased continuously for years, thousands are struggling for breath without authorities having to physically kneel on their neck.

“This too is systemic racism.”

Sea Watch 3’s head of mission, Philipp Hahn, said: “If the [Covid-19] pandemic has shown us one thing, it is that we are globally dependent on each other. No-one should be left behind here, between the devil and the deep blue sea.”

Fellow German refugee charity Sea Eye thanked the Sea Watch 3's crew today for carrying out the rescue while its own rescue ship, the Alan Kurdi, has been detained in Italy for over a month, along with the Aita Mari, a humanitarian ship operated by Basque charity Humanitarian Maritime Rescue.

In the last week-and-a-half at least 66 people have drowned in the central Mediterranean, the bodies from two shipwrecks having  washed up on Tunisia’s shores.

This morning the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) confirmed that 130 people had been returned to Libya by the country's coastguard.

The IOM and other rights organisations have repeatedly warned that migrants and refugees trapped inside the north African country’s formal and informal detention centres have been subjected to a slew of human-rights abuses.  

The morning’s interception brings the total number of people estimated by the IOM to have been “pushed back” to Libya to 4,500 so far this year.

Four refugee-rights and rescue organisations warned in a report published on today that the European Union is using chartered planes to organise the Libyan coastguard’s interceptions of refugee boats in the central Mediterranean.

Report co-authors Alarm Phone, Borderline Europe, Mediterranea: Saving Lives, and Sea-Watch say they have “directly witnessed and documented illegal push- and pull-backs to Libya co-ordinated by European authorities and implemented by the so-called Libyan coastguard.”

Sea Watch activist Berenice Gaudin said that the EU’s aerial surveillance has “led to the capture of tens of thousands of people and their return to the Libyan war zone in operations that amount to nothing less than state-run human trafficking.”

In the Aegean Sea, where both the IOM and the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) have urged Greece to investigate allegations and testimonies of refugee push-backs to Turkey, a refugee boat carrying 67 people drifted for hours before it was rescued today.

“At 9.11 [local time] we were contacted by a boat in distress in Greek waters near Lesbos,” Alarm Phone said. “The people say their engine is destroyed and the boat is adrift. We have alerted the Greek coastguard to ask for immediate rescue.”

At 1pm, Chris Borowski, a spokesman for Frontex, the European Border and Coastguard Agency,  told the Star: “I am happy to report that, according to our information, the boat was rescued by the Greek coastguard.”

However, an Alarm Phone activist told the Star that the Turkish authorities confirmed that they had rescued the people in distress.

Frontex has not yet responded to the Star’s request for clarification.

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