The European Commission maintains that its engagement with Libyan authorities has averted further maritime violence, even as NGO rescue vessels continue to face gunfire in the Mediterranean.
The European Commission claims its cooperation with the Libyan authorities prevented the country’s coast guard from carrying out even more attacks against charity vessels rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.. “We don’t know how many have been prevented, precisely because we have been engaging consistently with the Libyan authorities on this issue,” said Paula Pinho, the commission’s chief spokesperson.. Her comments on Tuesday (12 May) follow the latest attack against a German rescue boat that
came under fire by a Libyan patrol boat earlier this week.. The Libyans have sporadically opened fire on NGO rescue boats since at least 2017, amid sustained support from the EU and Italian authorities – posing questions on their lack of accountability.. Guillaume Mercier, another commission spokesperson, said they are now looking for ways to support the Libyan authorities in re-enforcing the national monitoring and accountability procedures.. “So everything we have been doing, we will
continue to do so, and actually the recent incidents did show that this work needs to be further reinforced,” he said.. The commission response came after a Libyan patrol boat opened fire on the Sea-Watch 5 vessels earlier on Monday in international waters some 55 nautical miles north of Libya, according to Sea-Watch, an NGO.. Although the attack on Monday did not result in any victims, it is not the first attack by Libyan forces
on charity rescue vessels.. The Sea-Watch 5 had also been attacked last September and after another vessel, the Ocean Viking operated by SOS Mediterranee, sustained 20-minutes of gunfire in international waters.. The humanitarian group responded with an open letter urging the commission to cut Libyan coast guard funding, which they swiftly dismissed.. Sea-Watch has similarly advocated for “the European Commission to end all cooperation with the so-called Libyan coastguard,” as they said in a statement,
as well as indicating that the German government may have facilitated the training of the Libyan coast guard.
EU Commission, Libya, Sea-Watch, Mediterranean, migration, coast guard, humanitarian