Boat accident off Tripoli in 2011

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The 2011 Tripoli boat accident was an event during the Libyan civil war in 2011 and the international military operation in Libya , in which 62 people died in the Mediterranean Sea. Libyan smugglers had equipped a boat occupied by 72 refugees from sub-Saharan countries with too little gasoline, food and water to be able to accommodate more people on board. When there were hardly any supplies of water, food and fuel on the high seas, it got into distress. It drifted in the Mediterranean for 15 days and then landed back on the Libyan coast. At that time, ten people were still alive, one of whom died soon after in prison due to a lack of medical care. The surviving nine refugees were released and fled Libya. Although calls for help from the boat had been picked up and broadcast, no rescue operation had taken place from either side.

The event became known through research by the British newspaper The Guardian . Upon their publication, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe initiated an investigation. The report of the responsible committee was published in April 2012. In the same month the Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution on the incident, which identified responsibilities and recommended various measures. In 2014, the Council of Europe dealt with this incident a second time in a resolution.

Distress

During the naval blockade of Libya by NATO ( Unified Protector ), a small rubber dinghy with 72 people on board left Tripoli for Lampedusa , probably in the late evening of March 26, 2011 . There were 50 men, 20 women and two small children who had fled from sub-Saharan countries. According to the survivors, tugs removed a large part of the water and food supplies from the boat in order to accommodate more people on board. From the statements of the refugees, the rapporteur for the Council of Europe concluded that probably only a box of biscuits and a couple of water bottles remained on board. Unlike on previous days, Libyan militias did not prevent embarkation, but even accompanied the refugees to the boat, according to the statements of the survivors interviewed.

In the early afternoon of March 28, the refugees sighted a small plane high above the boat. Around this time, a French aircraft sent a report and a photo of a heavily manned inflatable boat under propulsion to the Sea Rescue Center in Rome (MRCC). The position also roughly matched the later position determinations. The aircraft could not be identified.

Later in the afternoon, after more than 18 hours of sailing, panic spread among the refugees because Lampedusa could not be seen, the sea and the weather deteriorated and the fuel was running low. A refugee who acted as the “captain” had a satellite phone and made an emergency call to the Eritrean priest Mussie Zerai , who lived in Rome and whose phone number he had received for emergencies. This informed the sea rescue center in Rome, passed on the telephone number of the caller and reported that the boat was drifting in the sea without petrol. There were several phone contacts that Zerai used to keep the MRCC informed, including the news that he had heard cries for help from the boat's occupants. Both Zerai and the MRCC reached the boat by phone and text message and gave instructions on how to activate the phone's GPS in order to determine the exact position. The refugees did not succeed in this. After this contact, the phone's battery was empty and the refugees could no longer be reached. The Italian coast guard was able to determine an approximate position from the provider's data.

The MRCC Rome then sent a message about an emergency via various networks and channels in order to reach the maximum number of possible rescuers. About Inmarsat C ten days was long every four hours a distress call to all ships in the Strait of Sicily sent to reach as many ships. It also informed the MRCC Malta, NATO headquarters in Naples and the European border protection agency Frontex . However, it did not take responsibility for a rescue operation and did not ask ships in the vicinity of the boat to undertake a rescue operation, but limited itself to the information that a boat at this position was in need and needed help.

A few hours after the last telephone contact, survivors said a military helicopter appeared over the boat and then disappeared again. Shortly afterwards, according to them, the same or a different helicopter returned, lowered bottles of water and biscuits to the boat on a rope and signaled that it would be back and that they should not change their position. The Council of Europe rapporteur believes it is likely, but not certain, that this meeting was a reaction to the broadcasts from the MRCC Rome. The helicopter could not be identified.

According to the statements of the refugees, the boat drifted for a while. When after several hours no air or sea vehicle had arrived, a dispute arose as to whether one should continue to wait or drive towards Lampedusa with the rest of the gasoline. A few more hours later the decision was made to continue. After several hours of driving, the fuel finally ran out and the food and drink supplies were largely used up. Around that time, the refugees said they encountered at least two fishing boats, one with an Italian flag and one with a Tunisian flag. Communication was established with the Tunisian ship. The crew gave them advice on the correct course to Lampedusa, but no fuel, as they said they had none left. Then the ship disappeared again. None of the fishing boats could be identified, and there is no evidence that a fishing boat alerted one of the coast guards.

According to the statements of the survivors, the situation of the boat occupants deteriorated rapidly. In the following days people died every day. Around the tenth day of the journey, they would have met a large ship with helicopters or planes on board. It could be seen that people in military uniforms with binoculars watched the boat and took photos. Despite the signals from the survivors, the ship disappeared again. The helicopter or aircraft carrier could not be identified.

On the fifteenth day, April 10, the boat landed on the bank at Zliten , about 160 kilometers east of Tripoli, driven by the current . At that time, eleven people were still alive, one woman died on landing. The ten survivors were immediately arrested and given tea and bread in the prison. One of the ten died in prison due to a lack of medical care. The other nine were later released and received medical care from the Catholic Church in Tripoli. Due to the civil war situation, the further stay in Libya was dangerous. Some of them found refuge in Tunisia, others tried again to reach Lampedusa, which at least one of them succeeded.

Work-up

The Guardian revealed the story of this refugee boat in May 2011. In light of at least 1500 migrants dead in the Mediterranean in 2011, the Council of Europe launched an investigation with Tineke Strik as rapporteur.

After an investigation by the Council of Europe (Resolution 1872 from 2012), the tragedy revealed a catalog of errors. The tugs showed inconsiderate behavior, in particular due to the overloading of the boat and the insufficient supply of petrol, water and food. The Libyan authorities not only disregarded their responsibility for the Libyan SAR zone, but were also involved in the disembarkation of the boat by the smugglers. It turned out that the law of rescue at sea has a loophole insofar as it was not regulated who would take over the coordination of the rescue at sea if the country actually affected did not do it itself. The MRCC in Rome had sent rescue calls, but failed to ensure that a rescue took place. At least two NATO ships performed military tasks in the region, but did not undertake any rescue operation. Survivors had said that ships and helicopters near the boat did not help - this is a violation of sea rescue law. However, the reported ships and helicopters could not be identified. As a consequence, the Council of Europe recommended u. a. that the member states should also take over the SAR activities actually incumbent on Libya.

After the boat accident off Lampedusa in March 2013 and other cases, the Council of Europe dealt with the incident again and, in resolution 1999 in 2014, attested that Italy had made great efforts, but once again called on all member states to close the loopholes in the laws and the practical application in international sea rescue in the Mediterranean Sea. In order to clarify the case, NATO was once again requested to submit the positions of its ships and the messages it received to the Council of Europe rapporteur.

Web links

literature

Movie

  • Left-to-die boat , statement by survivor Dan Heile Gebre from December 22, 2011 in an interview with Lorenzo Pezzani (29 min .; vimeo)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Explanatory Memorandum" from the report of the "Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons" of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, April 5, 2012, online , points 17 to 19.
  2. ^ "Explanatory Memorandum" from the report of the "Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons" of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, April 5, 2012, online , points 22 and 85 to 91.
  3. ^ "Explanatory Memorandum" from the report of the "Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons" of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, April 5, 2012, online , points 23 to 26.
  4. ^ “Explanatory Memorandum” from the report of the “Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons” of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, April 5, 2012, online , points 57 to 73; Resolution 1872 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, online , item 7.
  5. ^ "Explanatory Memorandum" from the report of the "Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons" of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, April 5, 2012, online , points 27 to 30 and 92 to 95.
  6. ^ "Explanatory Memorandum" from the report of the "Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons" of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, April 5, 2012, online , points 31 to 38 and 100 to 104.
  7. ^ "Explanatory Memorandum" from the report of the "Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons" of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, April 5, 2012, online , points 41 to 44 and 97 to 99.
  8. ^ "Explanatory Memorandum" from the report of the "Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons" of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, April 5, 2012, online , points 46 to 48.
  9. ^ Council of Europe, Council of Europe Resolution 1872 (final version) , April 24, 2012
  10. ↑ The “left-to-die boat”: actions and reactions , Resolution 1999, Council of Europe 2014, accessed May 31, 2018