ROME: Eighteen fishermen from Mazara del Vallo in Sicily have been released after more than 100 days in captivity in Libya, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio announced on Thursday.
The breakthrough came on Thursday after Conte and Di Maio flew to Benghazi, the stronghold of Libyan General Khalifa El-Haftar, whose forces seized the crew members about 80 miles off the Libyan coast on September 1, claiming their two boats had entered Libya’s protected fishing area.
Conte posted a photo of the smiling fishermen on his Twitter account with the comment “Have a good journey home.” Di Maio tweeted the same photo and wrote, “Our fishermen are free.”
Di Maio added: “The Italian government continues to firmly support the stabilization process in Libya. This is what Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and I reiterated to Haftar today during our talks in Benghazi.”
The crew consists of 18 men: eight Italians, six Tunisians, two Indonesians, and two Senegalese.
Salvatore Quinci, the mayor of Mazara del Vallo, confirmed to Arab News that the men are on their way back to Sicily.
“The fishermen have already spoken to their families and they are aboard their boats, the Antartide and Medinea,” Quinci explained.
“Their Tunisian, Indonesian and Senegalese colleagues have managed to exchange a few words with their families too. We could not be more happy, this is the end of a nightmare which lasted too long. We could not (hope for) a better Christmas gift this year.”
In Mazara del Vallo there were cheers, hugs and tears of joy among relatives and friends who gathered in the local council chamber to hear the news. The fishermen of Mazara del Vallo have for generations relied on Mediterranean waters north of Libya for their livelihoods but see their futures increasingly threatened. As fish stocks have dwindled and trawler capabilities improved, their boats have sailed further from port and into waters over which Libya has claimed sovereignty.
The area is a fishing ground for the gambero rosso, or red prawn, a crustacean prized by gourmet chefs. It has been the scene of numerous clashes, which intensified in 2005 when Libya’s then-leader Muammar Qadaffi proclaimed that the country’s protected fishing zone extended 74 nautical miles from the coast, in defiance of international standards.
Over the past 25 years, more than 50 Italian boats have been seized, two of which were confiscated, and around 30 fishermen detained, while dozens of people have been injured in the ‘Gambero Rosso War,’ according to data from Sicily’s Distretto della Pesca. Detainees have usually been released after a few weeks of negotiations.
“This time it took much longer to achieve our fishermen’s liberation, but we are happy we finally succeeded thanks to Prime Minister Conte,” Quinci said.
Recent Italian media reports had suggested that El-Haftar wanted to trade the captive fishermen for four Libyans who had been sentenced to 30 years in Italian prison for human trafficking. El-Haftar claims those Libyans are soccer players, not criminals. In an interview with ANSA newsagency on Wednesday, Di Maio had firmly insisted Italy “would not be blackmailed on this issue.”
