23.04.2021, Alarm Phone

Coordinating a maritime disaster: Up to 130 people drown off Libya

Alarm Phone reports yet another massacre off the Libyan coast: We fear that up to 130 people have lost their lives. The people could have been rescued but all authorities knowingly left them to die at sea. Alarm Phone was in contact with this boat in distress over a period of ten hours, on 21 April, and repeatedly relayed its GPS position and the dire situation on board to European and Libyan authorities and the wider public. The only action undertaken was the launch of a surveillance airplane of Frontex, seven hours after the first alert, which found the boat and informed all authorities and merchant vessels in the area about the critical distress situation. Despite Frontex spotting the distressed boat from the sky, only non-state actors actively searched for the boat in distress at sea. European authorities rejected responsibility to coordinate this search operation and instead pointed at the Libyan authorities as the ‘competent’ authorities. read more

Language(s): Englisch / English
Region(s): Italien / Malta, Nordafrika, Europa