IOM: More Needs to Be Done on Saving Migrants

Amid escalating violence in Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) called on world governments to act swiftly to face the growing threat to migrants, as over a thousand are rescued from unseaworthy boats on the Mediterranean Sea this weekend.

IOM pointed to the rescue since Friday of over 1,600 migrants from multiple vessels.

This took place just days after some 330 adults and children were reported lost, presumed drowned, the previous weekend.

“This is a clear signal that the situation in Libya is unravelling. We also know this from the fact that Italy and several other nations have already evacuated their citizens from the country,” IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said on Monday, February 16th. “We must stand ready to assist thousands of extremely vulnerable people who need our help,” he added.

IOM staffers in Sicily and the island of Lampedusa are preparing this week to help the Italian authorities to care for the latest victims of criminal Libyan trafficking gangs, who reportedly sent at least a dozen unseaworthy inflatable vessels into a stormy Mediterranean starting last Tuesday.

IOM Italy reported Monday that approximately 1,650 survivors have been able to safely reach Italian shores, after being rescued and brought to the ports of Lampedusa, Augusta, Pozzallo, Porto Empedocle and Trapani.

IOM said that the migrants were rescued starting Friday, February 13, by the Italian Coast Guard, Italian navy ships, an Icelandic navy unit working in the framework of Triton, the EU’s coastal border patrol, and by a passing merchant ship. Most of the survivors are from Sub-Saharan Africa, although they include at least 200 Somali migrants.

IOM Italy Chief of Mission Federico Soda warned that he expects voyages like these will continue as Libya’s violence worsens.

Libya’s deepening chaos raises the stakes for Italy and all of Europe as officials across the continent debate the future of the European Union (EU)’s border control policies.

Italy’s Operation Mare Nostrum, in place from October 2013 until late last year, was responsible for the rescue of over 172,000 migrants sent out to sea by smuggling gangs in Africa. It has been replaced by an EU programme called Triton, which is administered by the EU’s Frontex border control agency.

“The current Triton patrols in the Mediterranean are clearly inadequate in the face of this situation,” said Ambassador Swing. “It is necessary to establish immediately a rescue system on the high seas that can respond to this emergency effectively to save migrants off Libya’s coast.”