Nearly a thousand migrants returned to Libya by coastguard

Nearly a thousand migrants were rescued on 24 June by the Libyan coastguard, ten bodies were also recovered from the sea, AFP reported.

The 948 African migrants were floating off the coast of Garabulli, east of the Libyan capital Tripoli, when the Libyan coastguard rescued the three inflatable boats during three separate operations.

Later in the day, new Italian anti-migrant Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, thanked Libyan authorities for rescuing the migrants.

“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks, as a minister and as a father, to the authorities and the Libyan coastguard,” he said in a tweet.

“Today they saved and brought 820 immigrants back to Libya, making the ‘work’ of the traffickers in vain and avoiding wrongful interventions by NGO ships,” Salvini added.

The Libyan coastguard’s announcement came as Salvini was en route to Libya for talks on the migrant crisis.

“Let the Libyan authorities do their work of rescue, recovery and return (of migrants) to their country, as they have been doing for some time, without the ships of the voracious NGOs disturbing them or causing trouble,” he said.

In June, Salvini made headlines as he blocked a rescue boat carrying 630 people from docking at Italian ports. The boat was also rejected by Malta, forcing the vessel to remain at sea until Spain offered safe haven to the migrants.

Italy and Malta then blocked a second vessel carrying 234 migrants from docking (date?). The deadlock between the two countries over who should be responsible for the migrants left the rescue ship, operated by German aid group Mission Lifeline, stranded for days in international waters.

Salvini said migrants trying to reach his country ‘will only see Italy on a postcard’. The Italian foreign minister also claimed the rescue ship had loaded the migrants in Libyan waters against the instructions of Italy’s coastguard.

On 26 June, Malta agreed to let the ship dock when other EU states confirmed that they would help following emergency talks held in Brussels in a bid to break the deadlock over who should take in the migrants.

Salvini claimed victory when the first ship, which he had turned away, was taken to Spain. When Malta allowed the ship to dock, Salvini tweeted: “For women and children really fleeing the war the doors are open, for everyone else they are not!”

TMP – 22/07/2018

Photo credit: Mission Lifeline/ Twitter. German charity Mission Lifeline’s rescue boat at sea.