International charity ships and Libya’s coast guard picked up several hundred migrants on Saturday as smugglers trying to take advantage of calm seas launched a flurry of boats toward Italy.
Libyan coast guard vessels intercepted three migrant boats, the first an inflatable dinghy that had broken down with 125 people on board off Zawiya, Libya, just west of the capital, Tripoli, coast guard spokesman Ayoub Qassem said.
The second boat was turned back off Garabulli, east of Tripoli, and had 112 people on board, while a third boat with 98 migrants on board was intercepted off Abu Kamash, near Libya’s border with Tunisia.
Photo: Reuters
One boat with more than 100 migrants on board made it as far as the Aquarius rescue ship about 34km from the coast to the west of Tripoli. The ship was preparing to transfer the migrants to Italy.
Rescuers on board the Aquarius said the migrant boat was on the verge of completely sinking when it reached them. More than half the migrants on it were Nigerians, with the rest from other sub-Saharan African countries as well as two Palestinians.
“All but one of the five balloons holding the boat up were either completely deflated or deflating and there were still about 120 people inside the boat, so a very, very precarious condition,” said Max Avis, one of the rescuers.
One of the Palestinians was thrown into the water by other migrants after trying to convince them that they would be better off being saved by a nearby Libyan coast guard boat than drowning, rescuers said.
Libya is the main departure point for migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea. More than 600,000 migrants have crossed the central Mediterranean to Italy over the past four years as people smugglers took advantage of a security vacuum in Libya. Thousands more perished at sea.
Since last summer, the rate of departures dropped sharply after smugglers in the Libyan town of Sabratha struck a deal with the Tripoli government to halt their activities and were then pushed from the town by rival armed groups.
Libya’s EU-backed coast guard has also stepped up interceptions, often cutting migrant boats off before they can reach international vessels that would take them to Europe.
Two other groups of migrants were transferred to the Aquarius late on Saturday, including 62 who had been picked up by a merchant ship in offshore oil fields and 106 others from another charity vessel.
Meanwhile, the coast guard in Zuwara, a former Libyan smuggling hub west of Zawiya, said they had foiled a departure during the night and arrested some migrants while others had escaped with smugglers.
The coast guard posted pictures of detained sub-Saharan African migrants sitting in an inflatable rubber boat on the beach in the dark.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese