By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 12 July 2017:
A leaked draft document reveals the EU is thinking of barring Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) rescue ships from entering Libyan waters to rescue migrants, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.
Technically they should not be able to enter Libyan territorial waters without specific permission from the Libyan authorities.
The EU would also ban such ships from using lights to signal their location to vessels at imminent risk of sinking . It would also force them to return to port to disembark migrants. Currently they tend to transfer rescued migrants to other vessels. This would remove rescuers from migrant areas for long periods.
There is also the proposal that NGOs wld no longer be able to land rescued migrants in Italian ports, an idea which the Italian government has been mooting in recent weeks.
“Perversely, the proposed code of conduct for NGOs saving lives in the Mediterranean could put lives at risk,” said Iverna McGowan, director of the Amnesty International, European Institutions Office.
“NGOs are out there in the Mediterranean rescuing people because the EU is not,” said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at HRW.
“Given the scale of tragedies at sea and the horrific abuses migrants and asylum seekers face in Libya, the EU should work with Italy to enhance robust search and rescue in the waters off Libya, not limit it,” she added.
Both groups said that the new code of conduct could breach rules that captains of vessels must adhere to at sea. Any code should focus on making rescue operations easier and better, they said.
The Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament is due to hold an “exchange of views on Search and Rescue in the Mediterranean” between MEPs, the Italian coastguard, the EU border management agency FRONTEX, and nongovernmental organisations.
