NGO records Mediterranean migrant clash
Last updated on: 02 July,2021 09:21 am
Many more migrants are trying to reach Europe via Libya and Tunisia this year
ROME (AFP) - German charity Sea-Watch released Thursday aerial images of what it said was a Libyan coast guard vessel firing at migrants and possibly trying to ram their boat.
The altercation on Wednesday ended without the migrants being intercepted however and they landed early Thursday on the Italian island of Lampedusa, Sea Watch said.
Many more migrants are trying to reach Europe via Libya and Tunisia this year, and the UN says more than 830 people have died in the Mediterranean, including 694 on what is known as the central route.
The Sea-Watch images were recorded by a plane operated by the non-governmental organisation and show impacts from two rounds hitting the water’s surface about two to three metres (yards) from the bow of a blue boat carrying around 50 migrants.
The coast guard ship, one of four given to Libya by Italy in 2017 according to the German NGO, tries to get close to the migrant’s motorised boat and attempts several times to cut across its path.
Sea-Watch members in the plane contacted the vessel and are heard saying: "You are endangering the people, you are getting too close.... Please keep more distance. Don’t shoot at the people."
A person identified as a coast guard member is heard replying that they were dealing with "a smuggling boat".
It was not possible to confirm that the vessel belonged to the Libyan coast guard, as Sea-Watch claimed, as they coast guard could not be contacted right away.
According to Italian authorities, almost 21,000 migrants have reached Italy this year, three times more than over the same period in 2020, including 17 percent who were unaccompanied minors.
In recent weeks, several craft that set off from Tunisia or Libya have capsized, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people.