The captain of a ship flying the Italian flag will be tried at the start of the school year for bringing migrants back to Libya he had rescued in the Mediterranean, a first case of this kind in Italy, according to documents consulted by AFP.
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The ship Asso 28 had rescued 101 migrants on July 30, 2018 near an oil platform in international waters, before taking them to the port of Tripoli and handing them over to the Libyan coast guard, according to the Naples prosecutor's office (south ). The captain and a representative of the Augusta Offshore company, owner of the vessel, are accused of having violated international laws which prohibit the refoulement of people to countries where they or their rights are threatened.
Libya is not considered a safe port under international law. The rescue had taken place near the Sabratha platform which is operated by Mellitah Oil & Gas, a consortium of the Libyan National Oil Corporation and ENI, an Italian energy giant. Five minors and five pregnant women were among those recovered from a distressed lifeboat.
Nothing has been done to identify migrants
Although the rescue took place on an Italian-flagged vessel that was under the jurisdiction of Rome, no call was made to the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC), as evidenced by the documents consulted.
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According to the Naples prosecutor's office, nothing has been done to identify the migrants, check their state of health, whether the minors were unaccompanied or ask the people rescued if they applied for asylum, all points in contravention of international conventions. . The Augusta Offshore company said at the time that the rescue was coordinated by the “ Sabratha Maritime Department ”, together with a representative of the Libyan Coast Guard who had boarded the Asso 28. Eni said that the rescue was coordinated by the Libyan Coast Guard.
According to the Italian daily Avvenire , the first to write about this affair, the prosecution had found no trace of a marine department in Sabratha, nor any proof that the Libyan MRCC had been alerted. The ship's log also did not mention the presence of a Libyan official on board, according to the newspaper.
Nicola Fratoianni, MP and leader of the Italian Left Party, who was on board as an observer at the time of the incident, told AFP that a rescue ship, the Open Arms, had warned the Asso 28 that the return of migrants to Libya “ was illegal ”. According to the parliamentarian, this trial, which must be held after the summer, will allow “ discovering the truth about too frequent episodes in the central Mediterranean ”.