“Leave immediately, is that clear?” : after a rescue, the Sea Watch 4 threatened by the Libyan coastguard

“Clear the area, otherwise we’ll take you with us to Libya, is that clear?” Here is the message received by Sea Watch 4 from the Libyan Coast Guard on Thursday, November 18. On the radio recording broadcast by the German NGO on Twitter, the injunction is hammered out several times, and the interlocutor is nervous. “You know the rules in Libya. Is that understood? Leave immediately!”, He insists.

A member of the crew of the Sea Watch 4 replied that the vessel was not in the SAR Libyan zone (distress and rescue zone) but in international waters, “more than 40 miles north of the Libyan coast “. And that he therefore has every right to navigate there.

Shortly before the altercation, NGO teams had rescued 90 people, including pregnant women and children, in distress aboard an “overcrowded rubber dinghy”. Nearby, a Libyan boat was already patrolling, with six migrants on board. “Panicked”, they jumped into the water to try to reach the NGO ship. They too were finally rescued by the Sea Watch 4.

“Get the fucking ship away!”

The tone quickly escalated. “Rescue at sea? [Plutôt] a new duel with the German pseudo-rescuers “, commented on Twitter the Migrant rescue watch account, close to the Libyan coast guard.” These bastards have almost killed people today. “And to reiterate the threats against from Sea Watch: “Get this fucking ship out before other innocent people die. NOW”.

This is not the first time that the boat has been threatened by the Libyan coast guard. At the end of July, in another audio extract broadcast by the NGO, we hear the Libyan authorities urging the aid ship to leave the area, and threatening the crew to “arrest” it if it does not obey orders.

>> To (re) read: Mediterranean Sea: Libyan Coast Guard threatens Sea Watch 4

According to Sea-Watch spokesperson Mattea Weihe, the coastguard has already “tried to intimidate the crew by surrounding their ship for a long time”, she told InfoMigrants.

More than 32 million euros allocated by the EU to the Libyan coast guard

If for humanitarian workers at sea, “cohabitation” with the Libyan authorities is very difficult, the latter are nevertheless supported by the European Union (EU) in their management of migratory flows. And in particular by Italy. Last July, the country’s parliament renewed its financial and material support to the Libyan coastguard, with the aim of stopping migrant boats in the Mediterranean Sea. Since 2017, Rome has provided them with speedboats in particular to intercept migrants.

According to a report by the NGO Oxfam, “a total of 32.6 million (euros) have been allocated to the Libyan coast guard since 2017”, the date of the signing of the first agreement between Italy and Libya.

Since the start of the year, 29,427 people have been intercepted at sea by the Libyan authorities, compared to 11,891 for the whole of last year, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). For these migrants, the desires of new departures are very often compromised. Back in Libya, the majority of them are transferred to the country’s detention centers, where they risk torture, various forms of violence and exploitation.

The editorial staff would like to point out that humanitarian ships (Ocean Viking, Sea Watch, Mare Jonio, etc.) crisscross a very limited part of the Mediterranean Sea. The presence of these NGOs is far from being a guarantee of relief for migrants who want to attempt the crossing from the African coasts. Many boats go unnoticed in the immensity of the sea. Many canoes also sink undetected. The Mediterranean remains today the deadliest sea route in the world.