ALBAWABA - According to a report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Libyan coastguards are accused of putting the lives of approximately 170 migrants crossing the Mediterranean at great risk, as they allegedly hampered their rescue operation.
The MSF said in a statement that its ship rescued two boats in international waters on Saturday: a small fiberglass boat carrying 28 people and a double-deck wooden vessel with 143 people on board that appeared to be in distress.
According to the organization, as it approached the larger boat, the Libyan coastguard (LCG) drew close and "performed dangerous maneuvers" that put the passengers onboard, mostly Syrian refugees, in even greater danger.
In a video captured by personnel aboard a support aircraft operated by the maritime rescue NGOSea-Watch, a patrol vessel maneuvers into position between two rigid boats operated by MSF, one of which has already begun to take people on board. The second boat cannot move towards the distressed vessel due to its situation.
A man on the aircraft footage is heard saying: "They are trying to intimidate the second RIB". A woman’s voice on the plane is heard saying: "What they are doing is, like, really, really, really dangerous".
The head of MSF’s search and rescue mission in Rome, Juan Matías Gil, said that the Libyan coastguard tried to tow away one of the migrant boats, hampering the rescue efforts by MSF crews.
"We were never going to allow this. We [the ship Geo Barents] are running under the Norwegian flag so the boat is Norwegian territory in international water. We don’t know where we would have ended up if they had managed to board our boat," Gil stated.
Gil stated that the disruption with its mission lasted "for around two hours" despite contact in English and Arabic with the Libyan coastguard, which is required by international law to rescue anyone in distress.
"It was only after tense negotiations and calls to the Norwegian and the Italian and Libyan authorities did they finally leave but not before making further threats towards us," the MSF report reads.
The incident occurred after survivors said that up to 60 illegal migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean last week after departing from Zawiya on Libya's coast.
The 25 survivors reported that the boat's engine had failed after three days, leaving the group stranded for days before being rescued by another humanitarian organization, SOS Méditerranée.
Later on Saturday, with the support of Libya's maritime rescue coordination center and Italian authorities, MSF evacuated 75 people from an overcrowded fiberglass boat that had capsized, 45 of whom had fallen into the water.
According to the most recent figures from Frontex, the EU border agency, 4,315 migrants crossed from North Africa to the EU across the Mediterranean in January and February, with a rise projected in the coming weeks.
