Migrants seeking to reach Europe died in worst shipwreck of year in sea
About 150 migrants seeking to reach Europe drowned in a shipwreck Thursday off the coast of Libya, according to the United Nations, which called it the largest single loss of life in the Mediterranean this year.
The shipwreck happened off the coast of Al Khoms in western Libya, and officials at the UN High Commission for Refugees said those who drowned were probably trying to reach southern Italy. About 140 migrants survived the shipwreck and were rescued by local fishermen and the Libyan coast guard, according to the officials.
It was unclear whether the migrants were traveling on a single ship or multiple ones. While the overall number of deaths of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean has fallen in 2019 compared to recent years, especially at the peak of the migrant crisis in 2015, the crossing is increasingly perilous for those who undertake it.
The UN High Commission for Refugees attributed the deadlier conditions to the decrease in rescue ships, both governmental and nongovernmental, patrolling the waters. Italy’s nationalist and anti-immigrant government has sought to seal its long coastline by refusing to let aid ships carrying rescued migrants land on its shores.
A new law championed by Italy’s hard-line interior minister and de facto leader, Matteo Salvini, fines the captains and crews of aid ships flying foreign flags for bringing migrants ashore. This month, Italy’s parliament passed a bill making it easier to confiscate the vessels.
Campaigning
The Italian government, which came to power campaigning against illegal migration, argues that the aid ships work with human traffickers and act as an unhealthy incentive for desperate migrants to risk the crossing. Human rights organisations reject the claim.
“The horrific news of a major shipwreck today only continues to highlight the extremely high human cost of the current situation in Libya and of the lack of rescue capacity in the central Mediterranean,” said Julien Raickman, head of the Libya mission of Doctors Without Borders, the medical charity, which helped treat the survivors.
Doctors Without Borders had suspended operating its rescue boats in December, citing opposition by Italy’s government, but resumed rescue operations a few days ago. In March, the European Union significantly limited its search and rescue operation. In the past, navy and coast guard ships of several member states patrolled the Mediterranean. Now, that mission has largely been delegated to a partnership with the Libyan coast guard, which has been criticised by aid groups as brutal. They also argue that Libya is itself not a safe port, and that forcing migrants to return to its often horrific migrant camps violates their basic human rights.
Mr Salvini boasted at a May rally in Milan before the European elections that he had brought “deaths in the Mediterranean Sea to zero, with pride and Christian spirit.” Before Thursday’s shipwreck, 423 migrants as of July 21st had died this year trying to cross the central Mediterranean to Italy, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees.
SOURCE: Irish Times
