25 March 2020
It is not only governmental or quasi-governmental actors that are involved in the push- and pull-back of migrants to Libya. Private vessels are also playing a role.
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"The Panther, a German-owned merchant ship, is not in the business of sea rescues. But one day a few months ago the Libyan Coast Guard ordered it to divert course, rescue 68 migrants in distress in the Mediterranean and return them to Libya, which is embroiled in civil war.
The request, which the Panther was required to honor, was at least the third time that day, Jan. 11, that the Libyans had called on a merchant ship to assist migrants.
The Libyans could easily have alerted a nearby rescue ship run by a Spanish charity. The reason they did not goes to the core of how the European authorities have found a new way to thwart desperate African migrants trying to reach their shores from across the Mediterranean.
And some maritime lawyers think the new tactic is unlawful.
...“We call them privatized pushbacks,” said Charles Heller, the director of Forensic Oceanography, a research group that investigates migrant rights abuses in the Mediterranean. “They occur when merchant ships are used to rescue and bring back migrants to a country in which their lives are at risk — such as Libya.”"
Privatized Pushbacks: How Merchant Ships Guard Europe (New York Times, link)
See: PRIVATISED PUSH-BACK OF THE NIVIN (Forensic Architecture, link)
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