hello,
here is the pressrelease we send out friday for the german press translated to english:
Pressrelease 29.11.2013
More than 200 refugees die as rescue in time is denied –
Italian coast guard forwards distress call to Malta and fails to act!
Italian coast guard forwards distress call to Malta and fails to act!
Eight days after the tragedy of Lampedusa on the 3rd of October 2013:
admiral of Italian coast guard justifies inaction by referring to Malta’s
responsibility; research documents failure to rescue at sea on the 11th of
October 2013.
On the 11th of October 2013, eight days after the tragedy of Lampedusa,
more than 200 Syrian refugees including more than 100 children drown in
another tragedy taking place about 100 kilometers off the Italian island.
The scandalous circumstances of the deadly drama come to light only due to
the insistent research of Italian journalist Fabrizio Gatti as well as the
investigations of the monitoring project WatchTheMed.
The boat took off in Libya the eve before and was pursued and fired at by
a Libyan speedboat which caused the distress of the boat. The distress
calls that were transmitted via satellite telephone in the morning of the
11th October were ignored by Italian authorities as survivors testify
later in an interview.
An inspection of the emergency warning system through WatchTheMed showed
that although vessels in proximity were informed, the rescue mission was
instructed only at 17:14h by the Italian naval vessel LIBRA. As confirmed
by Rome, this instruction occurred four and a half hours after the
reception of the distress call at 12:26. At this point in time the refugee
boat had sunk already with more than 200 people drowning. All of them
could have survived had the rescue operation started immediately.
Following the news magazine Espresso, the head of the port authority and
the Italian coast guard Felicio Angrisano justified the inaction by
pointing to the responsibility of Malta since the refugee boat had been in
Maltese Search and Rescue zone (SAR).
“Left to die at sea remains evidently part of the EU policy of deterrence
toward refugees”, states Helmut Dietrich from the Forschungsgesellschaft
Flucht und Migration. “Fortress Europe” has documented more than 18.000
deaths in the last 20 years, deaths of those human beings who became the
victims of the European border regime. Most of them died in the
Mediterranean Sea and again and again there are accusations of the failure
to render assistance. “It is stunning that refugees have to die because of
disagreements over matters of jurisdiction amongst authorities of two EU
states that are compelled to rescue”, says Karl Kopp, European referent of
PRO ASYL. The chain of evidence in this case seems so tight that those
responsible should also be legally held to account. Stefan Schmidt,
previous captain of Cap Anamur and member of the human rights organisation
borderline-europe advises this step: “The behaviour of the Italian and
Maltese authorities is in conflict with all regulations of the law of the
sea and they should absolutely be charged.”
This press release was composed by the following human rights
organisations and networks that support on different levels the above
mentioned monitoring project WatchTheMed: PRO ASYL, Forschungsgesellschaft
Flucht und Migration, borderline-europe, medico international,
Afrique-Europe-Interact, Welcome to Europe
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