EU: Libyan Coast Guard left two adults and a baby to die at sea, says rescue group
18 July 2018
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Libyan Coast Guard left two adults and a baby to die at sea, says rescue group
18.7.18
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The Libyan Coast Guard left two adults and a baby to die at sea after destroying the boat in which they were travelling some 80 miles off the coast of Libya, according to the sea rescue organisation Proactiva Open Arms.
See: Libya coast guard left migrants to die in Mediterranean Sea, Aid group says (NBC News, link):
"An aid group has accused Libya's coast guard of abandoning a woman and a toddler to their deaths in the Mediterranean Sea after intercepting 160 Europe-bound migrants.
Proactiva Open Arms, a Spanish rescue group, said it found three people amid the drifting remains of a destroyed boat 80 nautical miles from the coast of the north African nation.
It said it found one woman alive and another dead, along with the body of a toddler.
The organization posted images and videos of the wreckage and the bodies on social media, accusing both a merchant ship sailing in international waters and Libya's coast guard for failing to help the three migrants."
According to a press release issued by Open Arms today, the boat is now heading to a Spanish, rather than an Italian port, after the Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini referred to the testimony, images and videos on the events of 17 July provided by Open Arms as "lies and insults".
The organisation published a press release yesterday (17 July) which described the events - unofficial translation by Statewatch: Witnesses to another crime of the current politics in the Central Mediterranean
On the morning of 17 July, the crews of the boats Open Arms and Astral located a boat of some 10 metres in length, totally destroyed, some 80 miles of the Libyan coast. Amongst the remains of the boat, we rescued the bodies of a woman and a young baby. We also rescued a woman who was still alive, but suffering from hypothermia and severe shock, who is now on board the Open Arms in the care of our medical team specialised in maritime medical emergencies.
The Open Arms, in its journey towards the rescue zone, was witness yesterday to radio conversations between the Libyan patrol boat 648 (RAS-AL JADR) and the merchant ship TRIADES, in which the latter was requested to set course for for a particular position where the boat in danger was to be found, and to which the ship headed. Hours later, after insistently demanding the presence of the afore-mentioned patrol boat, they abandoned the shipwrecked person. Not without beforehand communicating the position of the boat.
After an intense six-hour search of said zone we located them and confirmed that a Libyan patrol boat had carried the shipwrecked persons to Libya, but not without first destroying the boat in which they had been travelling for two days and two nights and leaving three people to their fate on the high seas, failing to comply with the obligation to save lives.
(...)
The episode that we experienced today, as well as the brutal increase in deaths at sea in recent months, is without doubt a direct consequence of the persecution of rescue NGOs in the Mediterranean with the explicit objective of legitimating Libyan militias financed and trained by Italy and the UE to put a brake on the number of people arriving in Europe. They are breaching the protection of the basic rights of the people rescued from the hell that is Libya, a country without a state where they persecute, detain, extort, rape, enslave and assasinate with impunity.
Original press release: Testigos de otro crimen de la política actual en el Mediterráneo Central
En la mañana de hoy, 17 de julio, las tripulaciones del los buques Open Arms y Astral han localizado a 80 millas de las costas libias una barca abandonada de unos diez metros completamente destruida. Entre los restos de esta barca, hemos rescatado los cadáveres de una mujer y un niño de corta edad. Asimismo, hemos recuperado también a una mujer en estado de hipotermia y en shock severo, pero con vida, que se encuentra estable a bordo del Open Arms bajo los cuidados de nuestro equipo médico especializado en emergencias médicas en el entorno marítimo.
El buque Open Arms, en su travesía hacia la zona de rescate, fue testigo ayer por radio de conversaciones entre la patrullera libia 648 (llamada RAS-AL JADAR) y el buque mercante TRIADES, en las que solicitaban a este último que pusiera rumbo a una posición concreta donde se hallaba una barca en peligro, punto al que se dirigieron. Horas más tarde, después de reclamar insistentemente la presencia de la mencionada patrullera, abandonaron a los náufragos. No sin antes comunicarles la posición de la barca.
Tras una intensa búsqueda de 6 horas en la zona mencionada, les hemos localizado, y constatado cómo, con posterioridad a lo relatado, una patrullera libia se llevó a los náufragos de vuelta a Libia, no sin antes destruir la barca en la que llevaban 2 días y 2 noches, dejando abandonados a su suerte, incumpliendo con la obligación de socorro, a 3 personas en alta mar.
Es un hecho a denunciar ante el Tribunal ?Internacional ?de los Derechos Humanos.
Oscar Camps, nuestro director y fundador, a bordo del Open Arms en ese momento y testigo de lo sucedido, declara:
“La guardia costera libia anunció que había interceptado un bote con 158 personas a bordo y había proporcionado asistencia médica y humanitaria. Lo que no dijeron fue que dejaron a dos mujeres y un niño a bordo, y hundieron el barco porque no querían subirse a las patrulleras libias. Esta mañana, cuando llegamos, encontramos a una de las dos mujeres todavía con vida, mientras que no pudimos hacer nada por recuperar a la otra mujer y al niño, que al parecer murió pocas horas antes de que los encontráramos. ¿Cuánto tiempo tendremos que lidiar con asesinos alistados por el gobierno italiano para matar y torturar a aquellos que intenten cruzar el Mediterráneo? De este crimen es responsable la política de Matteo Salvini”.
El episodio que acabamos de vivir hoy, así como el aumento brutal de las muertes en el mar en los últimos meses, es sin duda consecuencia directa de la persecución a las ONGs de rescate en el Mediterráneo con el objetivo explícito de legitimar a milicias libias financiadas y entrenadas por Italia y la UE para frenar el numero de llegadas de personas a Europa. Vulneran así la protección de los derechos básicos de las personas rescatadas del infierno de Libia, país sin Estado donde se persigue, se detiene, se extorsiona, se viola, se esclaviza y se asesina con impunidad.
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