Rescue boat targeted by Libyan militias outside Lampedusa, claims Malta ignored evacuation request

The migrant rescue charity Sea-Eye has claimed that Italy’s rescue centre has accused Malta’s rescue coordination centre “in a written dispute” of having ignored international obligations to rescue over 90 persons rescued at sea.

The statements comes a day after the rescue was interrupted by two Libyan militia powerboats which fired warning shots in the air, provoking panic among migrants being transferred from a rubber boat to the Sea-Eye vessel Alan Kurdi.

Sea-Eye claims Malta has ignored a request for a medical evacuation of a 22-year-old Nigerian pregnant woman, who was experiencing heavy bleeding in her fourth month of gestation. The medevac was eventually effected by the Italian authorities.

Dramatic scenes and tensions as Libyan militia attempts to stop migrant rescue

“The Maltese first assured an evacuation for Sunday morning by helicopter. But the rescue operation was postponed, finally cancelled due to the weather; Malta pointed out that the Alan Kurdi is closer to Lampedusa,” said Jan Ribbeck, Sea-Eye mission leader.

At that point, the rescue ship had crossed over into the Maltese SAR zone. “The weather was very good. Formally, Malta was responsible for organising the evacuation, even if the person should not be evacuated to Malta,” Ribbeck said.

“This was not the first time Malta had denied responsibility for emergencies in the Maltese rescue zone. In a written dispute, the Italian rescue centre made serious accusations against the Maltese control centre. We suspect behind this the political consideration that Malta tried to prevent the disembarkation of the other 90 persons on board, because at that time they were heading for Malta,” Ribbeck continued.

Rome finally picked up the Nigerian woman by patrol boat, taking her to Lampedusa.

Yet Sea-Eye is still waiting for permission to disembark 90 rescued persons in Lampedusa, as it waits in territorial waters off Italy.

Gunboat incident

Libyan authorities have been accused of provoking a dangerous incident inside international waters as a migrant charity boat rescued people at risk of drowning.

The crew of the NGO Sea-Eye’s Alan Kurdi were alerted to an emergency call from the aid organisation AlarmPhone of a rubber boat in international waters on Saturday. Upon arrival, the crew started its usual distribution of life jackets and evacuated the first few people. “The rubber boat was completely overburdened, and water entered. Suddenly, three heavily armed fast boats under Libyan flag approached,” Sea-Eye said in a statement, Sunday.

According to Sea-Eye, the Libyans positioned themselves between the Alan Kurdi and the rubber boat to stop the rescue efforts. “In panic, people started jumping off the white rubber boat to reach the rescue boats of the Alan Kurdi. The Libyan militia threatened the captain via radio with aiming their boat’s mounted guns at the German ship. The captain sent the majority of the crew to the back of the ship to minimise the danger to them,” Jan Ribbec, Sea-Eye director of mission said.

The situation further escalated when warning shots were fired into the air and water.

Ribbec said the Libyans aimed their mounted guns at the people in the water. Another witness, head of mission Joshua Wedler, said the Alan Kurdi was unable to manoeuvre at this point, because the Libyan boats had positioned themselves in such a way that the ship could neither move forward or back. “A collision between the Alan Kurdi the rubber boat made many people fall into the water. People, who were taken on board by the Libyan militia jumped right back into the water.”

90 survivors together with 17 crew members are now on board the rescue ship Alan Kurdi. The crew remained unharmed.