Libya’s UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Tripoli has refused to authorize the landing of migrants stopped at sea and sent back to Libyan territory by its coast-guard vessels.
The Libyan Coast Guard on Thursday stopped about 280 migrants, but when it attempted to return them to Libya, the country’s authorities refused to let them disembark due to fighting around the capital, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
IOM initially said that “due to the intensity in shelling, relevant officials in Tripoli had declared its own seaports closed and ‘unsafe.’”
However, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday said that Libyan ports had not closed, as the IOM had claimed.
“The IOM mistake is due to the fact that there was shelling near the commercial port and the Libyan Coast Guard refused to disembark the people,” UNHCR Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Vincent Cochetel said. “Some escaped ... About 160 Sudanese were released. Libya’s Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration does not seem able or prepared to take more detainees.”
Since a deal was signed with the Italian government in 2017, the Libyan coast guard has stopped migrant boats heading to Europe at sea and sent their passengers back to Libya, where aid agencies have said they face torture and abuse.
Despite the fear of COVID-19, hundreds of migrants continue to risk their lives at sea to reach Europe.
EU member states have been accused of abandoning people at sea after failing to respond to information provided by non-governmental organizations that four boats, carrying 258 migrants between them, were in distress.
In an unprecedented move on Tuesday, the Italian government also declared its seaports “unsafe” because of the coronavirus pandemic and said that it would not authorize the landing of migrant rescue boats until the end of the crisis.
In a sign of how dangerous Libya is for those trying to reach Europe, dozens of people held at Tripoli’s main port since Thursday last week fled the facility as it was being shelled early on Friday morning.
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