Libyan marine rescue zone aims to ‘organize’ NGOs: Navy

African migrants gather at a the Illegal Immigration Authority in Tripoli on Thursday ahead of being repatriated to their country of origin under a voluntary program coordinated by the International Organization for Migration. (AFP)

TRIPOLI: Libya is not “preventing” non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from carrying out migrant rescue operations off its coast, but has set up a coastal search and rescue zone to “organize” their work, its navy said.
The navy last week ordered unauthorized foreign vessels to stay out of Libya’s coastal zone, a measure it said targeted NGOs carrying out search and rescue missions for migrants headed toward Europe.
Several NGOs including Doctors without Borders (MSF), Germany’s Sea-Eye and Britain’s Save the Children have since suspended their operations.
Tripoli has long accused the NGOs of collaboration with people traffickers.
“We did not announce any prohibited zone, nor did we prevent any party or organization from carrying out clear, transparent rescue operations,” the navy said in a statement.
“What we announced was aimed at organizing the work, which has become chaotic and arbitrary.”
Six years since a revolution that toppled longtime dictator Maammar Qaddafi, Libya has become a departure point for masses of migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, mostly heading for Italy.
The Libyan navy called the situation “chaotic, especially close to Libyan waters.”
It said the NGOs’ decision to suspend operations was “regretable” but denied it was responsible, blasting the NGOs’ “aggressive discourse” that was “smearing” Libya.
It added that its move to create a coastal search and rescue zone was “a legitimate right of the Libyan state, guaranteed by international laws.”
It called for “coordination with the Libyan authorities” to help save lives “without infringing on Libyan sovereignty.”
Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said this week that the zone would likely be authorized by the International Maritime Organization.
But he added that the coast guard of Libya does not have the resources to patrol such an area.
The Libyan authorities have requested aid from Italy to help secure its maritime borders.
In a related development, officials in Madrid said Spanish coastguards rescued nearly 600 people from 15 boats and a jet ski on Wednesday in the waters between Morocco and Spain, a route increasingly used by migrants trying to reach Europe.
A coastguard spokesman said 599 people had been rescued since the early hours of Wednesday morning, a large number for just one day in Spain.
At least 35 minors, including a baby, were among the flow of migrants crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea as they fled unrest or poverty in their countries, he said.
"The high number of boats coming to the Spanish coast this summer is unusual," a spokeswoman for Spain's coastguards said earlier, adding that there were three times as many as in the same period last year.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 8,385 migrants had arrived in Spain this year by August 9.
At least 121 drowned while attempting this route, compared with 128 deaths for the whole of 2016, as recorded by the IOM.
The number still pales in comparison with the number of people hitting the shores of Italy, which saw close to 97,300 people arrive this year until August 13, with 2,242 deaths.
In June, about 5,000 people were rescued in just one day in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, Italian coastguards said.
But Spain could overtake Greece this year in the number of migrants arriving by sea, the IOM said this month.
And this does not take into account those crossing by land into Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish territories in northern Morocco.
Both cities are the EU's only land borders with Africa.
As a result, they are entry points for migrants who regularly try to climb high double border fences or force their way through them with wire cutters, or hide in vehicles crossing the frontier.