The independent Roman daily “Domani” managed, in collaboration with the British newspaper “The Guardian” and the Italian TV channel RAI News, to obtain documents transcribing wiretaps from 2017. These documents are in the possession of the prosecutor’s office Trapani, in Sicily, prove the inertia at the Libyan Coast Guard in the face of migrants’ shipwrecks in their territorial waters.
as reported from Rome, Anne Le Nir
The revelations are cool. In particular, we learn that on 24 May 2017, at dawn, after receiving a satellite call from one of the 600 migrants aboard a boat in distress in Libyan territorial waters, Italian Coast Guard officials tried to contact their Libyan counterparts fifty times. They only get this answer from a soldier: “I do not speak English”. A few days later, the UN refugee agency announced 33 migrants, including 7 children, dead on the morning of 24 May.
► Also read: Libya: Release of “al-Bidja”, the coastguard officer accused of smuggling migrants
Less than a month later, on Friday, June 16, an even more catastrophic scenario occurred. An Italian coastguard officer contacts a Libyan colleague and explains to him that “ten temporary boats are in operation”. The latter replies: “I will see what I can do, but today is a day off”.
Results: between 16 and 17 June 2017, 126 people drowned in Libyan waters. At the same time, Europe and Italy already funded Libya to help it better control migratory flows.
► Also read: Migration: The IOM condemns the return of migrants to Libya and arbitrary detention
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