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Over the past week, the Libyan coast guard said it had rescued more than 1,000 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. As summer approaches, rescue ships from NGOs like Ocean Viking are bracing for an increase in crossings and have expressed doubts about the Libyan authorities’ commitment to the well-being of migrants.
On Wednesday, the Libyan coast guard intercepted an inflatable boat carrying 138 migrants bound for Europe off the country’s west coast.
Just two days earlier, the International Organization for Migration said Libya’s maritime authorities had intercepted nearly 1,000 migrants in as many days.
NGOs and international agencies have denounced the EU-backed policy of returning migrants intercepted at sea to Libya, due to political chaos in the country and notoriously poor conditions in detention centers.
RFI political journalist Guilhem Delteil has spent the last three weeks aboard the Ocean Viking, a rescue vessel belonging to the NGO SOS Méditerranée, operational in this capacity since 2019.
Since joining the ship’s crew in early March, he has witnessed the rescue of at least 116 migrants in two interceptions that took place in international waters.
Maritime rescue and rules of engagement
“The Ocean Viking and the other NGOs never enter [Libyan] the waters, but they’re only 12 miles from the coast, ”says Delteil. Search and rescue areas are in international waters but this is a part of the sea where each country is supposed to coordinate search and rescue operations … boat in distress, they have to call the boats sailing around from him – it could be a private boat or any other type of boat in the area – and say “okay help us save and save with the disembarkation”. “
“These boats leave Libya in the middle of the night, around midnight, to try to be discreet and escape the coast guard. They will have sailed for many hours in international waters … therefore have not slept all night: they are thirsty, they are dehydrated, they are exhausted, they are wet … and they are cold because the ‘water gets inside the boats,’ explains Delteil, who is currently still in quarantine on the Ocean Viking prior to landing. next week in Sicily.
A calm sea can suddenly become rough and choppy over the Mediterranean, he explains. “In these inflatable boats, there is no real protection against water,” adds Delteil, “so water was getting in and they were all wet and cold. When they get on board, they take dry clothes and usually spend the afternoon sleeping.
Escape from hell in Libya
However, their predicament on the high seas appears pale compared to the conditions of their detention in Libya.
“They all tell the same stories of torture and ill-treatment they suffered in Libya. A subject that comes up very often in their testimonies is what they call ‘prisons’. They are not always real prisons because most of these prisons are run by armed militias, not by government forces, ”says Delteil.
“Even going out on the streets of Tripoli is dangerous for them because they can be kidnapped… then sent to a detention center where they are forced to pay money to get out. Until they can pay, they are tortured and abused in many different ways until their families collect the money. [to release them] of these prisons. “
Since her deployment to the Mediterranean two years ago, the Ocean Viking has had its fair share of run-ins with port authorities around the Mediterranean, being denied the right to dock by the Maltese and Italian coast guards.
The mixed motivations of the Libyan coast guard
But he has also engaged with the Libyan Coast Guard, whose motives have been questioned by rights groups when it comes to dealing with the situation of migrants on their shores.
“The Libyan maritime authorities are supposed to coordinate search and rescue activities. But what the Ocean Viking crew and all the NGOs are saying is that the Libyans are not playing this role and they are there is no coordination in the Libyan search and rescue zones. “
In one of the rescues Delteil witnessed, the Libyan coast guard requisitioned one of the migrant ships after threatening to force the migrants into the sea.
“We received a call from the Libyan Coast Guard boat … asking us to save a small boat in which there were 10 Libyans fleeing their country,” he said.
After the people were boarded, one of their group climbed back into the dinghy and the Coast Guard set off for shore, pulling the boat behind them.
According to testimony heard on board, this person was in fact a member of the Coast Guard.
“[The coast guards] came near [the migrant vessel] a few minutes before they reached the Ocean Viking and threatened them saying “you have a choice.” Either we’ll take you to the Ocean Viking and take your ship to Libya, or we’ll leave you here in the middle of the sea, ”says Delteil.
EU diplomacy will not help the plight of migrants
And it is this cycle of cynical opportunism and racketeering that has permeated the so-called authorities in Libya who do not respond to any centralized government or government institution.
But now there is a new government of national unity in Tripoli, the European Union is scrambling to regain its influence in the country, which has been the stage for international actors to deploy their mercenary muscle – from Turkey and Qatar. on one side, to Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates on the other.
However, this desire of the EU to find its currency in the reconstruction of Libya will probably not change the gratuitous exploitation of migrants within its borders.
“I don’t see any scenario where the detention centers will disappear,” says Delteil. “In Libya, there is only the rule of arms and I don’t see that going away any time soon. Is the European Union playing a humanitarian role at the moment? It’s hard to say … in at the same time, they are trying to rebuild a state. But from an immediate point of view, it is difficult to call this humanitarian action. “
Guilhem Delteil is a journalist at RFI Politique (French service), who spent three weeks aboard the Ocean Viking in March 2021.
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