Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label African migrants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label African migrants. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2019

BREAKING: Italian ship rescues migrants as Rome vows to 'stop' them landing


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An Italian ship picked up some 50 migrants off the Libyan coast on Monday but it is unclear if it can land them in Italy.
An Italian ship picked up some 50 migrants off the Libyan coast on Monday but it is unclear if it can land them in Italy. An Italian ship picked up some 50 migrants off the Libyan coast on Monday but it is unclear if it can land them in Italy. AFP
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by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24
An Italian charity ship rescued some 50 migrants at sea off Libya Monday, prompting Rome to warn it was ready to "stop once and for all" such private vessels from bringing those saved to Italy.
Italy's hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has repeatedly declared Italian waters closed to NGO rescue vessels and has left several of them stranded at sea in the past in a bid to force Europe to take its share of asylum seekers.
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"Mare Jonio has just rescued a rubber boat in distress that was sinking with around 50 people on board," the Mediterranea collective of aid groups and associations that runs the ship said on Twitter.
Volunteers aboard the Mare Jonio pulled the migrants -- reportedly including 12 minors -- off a dinghy some 40 nautical miles off the coast of the north African country.
A Libyan coast guard vessel had approached the dinghy while the rescue was underway but left the migrants to the Mare Jonio, which was expected to request permission to bring them to safety in Italy.
It was not immediately clear whether the Mare Jonio had defied an order from the command centre in Rome telling it to leave the rescue to the Libyans.
Italy, with the support of the EU, has since 2017 been training the Libyan coast guard to intercept boats as part of a controversial deal that has seen migrant arrivals to Italy drop off sharply.
NGO ships have drawn fire from Rome by attempting on occasion to stop migrants being taken back to the crisis-hit country, which human rights organisations insist cannot be considered safe for repatriations.
- 'Facilitating human trafficking' -
The interior ministry said it was "working on a directive to reiterate the procedures that must be followed" after sea rescues.
"Saving lives remains a priority, but immediately afterwards the orders of the national authorities of the competent territory must be obeyed, according to the international rules of search and assistance at sea.
"Any deviance from those rules can be read as a premeditated action to bring illegal immigrants to Italy and facilitate human trafficking," it warned, adding that Salvini was "about to sign a directive" on the issue.
Should the Mare Jonio request permission to dock, and be refused, it would be the first such stand-off between the Italian government and an Italian-flagged ship.
"Good luck & thank you. We hope the disembarkation outside of Libya will be faster than what we witnessed before," tweeted Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR's special envoy for the central Mediterranean.
The Mare Jonio is the only privately-run rescue ship currently operating in the central Mediterranean.
The others are either undergoing repairs, docked for a crew change or blocked by administrative or judicial hurdles.
Some 348 migrants have been brought to safety in Italy so far this year, compared to 6,161 in the same period last year.
"Despite a dangerously low SAR (search and rescue) capacity in the Mediterranean due to Italy & EU policy, people continue to risk their lives to seek safety," tweeted Doctors Without Borders.
Some 234 people have died in the Mediterranean in 2019, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

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Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Migrants sold into slavery in Libya tell of 'total hell'


by Rashida Adjani and Biodun Iginla, France24, ABIDJAN


    © AFP / by Patrick FORT | Around 600 Ivorian migrants are being flown home from Libya this week with a first tranche of 150 arriving in Abidjan on Monday

    ABIDJAN - 
    Survivors of slave auctions in Libya have described a "total hell" that they wouldn't wish on their "worst enemy" as global outrage grows over footage showing migrants being sold off in the war-torn country.
    "We were slaves," said Moussa Sanogo, a migrant who flew back to Ivory Coast from Libya this week after surviving regular beatings and forced labour in the fields.
    "For the Arabs (Libyan jailers), black-skinned men are nothing but animals -- animals were treated better," said Sanogo, who spent more than four months in Libya trying to get to Italy by boat.
    The North African country has long been a major transit hub for migrants trying to reach Europe.
    He was just one of those who returned home with stories similar to those aired last week by US TV network CNN, which showed an apparent slave auction where black men were presented to North African buyers as potential farmhands and sold off for as little as $400 (340 euros).
    "It was total hell in Libya," said Maxime Ndong, one of 250 migrants flown back to Cameroon on Tuesday night.
    "There is a trade in black people there. People who want slaves... come to buy them," he told AFP.
    "If you resist, they shoot at you. There have been deaths," said Ndong, who spent eight months in Libya.
    The Cameroonians flew back to Yaounde on Tuesday aboard a plane charted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as part of a project to return and reintegrate some 850 people.
    - Sold by the police -
    Sanogo, 22, was one of about 600 Ivory Coast migrants that were returning from Libya with IOM's support. Around 150 people landed in the capital Abidjan on Monday with the rest to be brought home during the week.
    Sanogo described Libya as an anarchic country preyed on by bandits where the forces of law and order were involved in human trafficking.
    "At one point, we were caught by people who said they were police," he said.
    "The police then sold me for 500 dinars (310 euros, $365) to a man who made me work in a tomato field for a month. You have to work."
    Sanogo fled across the desert to Niger where he was imprisoned again before finally escaping to Tunisia.
    Then a people smuggler promising a path to Europe convinced him to return to Libya.
    - 'Pricing you like merchandise' -
    "We were captured and locked in a small room with 60 other people," and were "not able to wash," he said.
    "When the Arabs entered they wore masks due to the smell," he said, shaking his head at the memory.
    "They are buying you. You're there, you have been arrested, you see they are judging your price like merchandise. They bought you and you're going to work... like a slave," he said.
    "They hit you all the time -- especially if you're big like me -- until the blood flows, with sticks, metal, the butt of a gun.
    "For food, you are given a piece of bread and a piece of cheese, that's all... I'm happy to be back," he said.
    "I would not wish it on my enemy."
    - 'Humiliation for Africa' -
    Another migrant, Seydou Sanogo from Abidjan, said: "You would have to see what we lived through to believe it".
    But not everyone wanted to leave Libya. One woman with an 18-month-old baby said she did not want to return to Ivory Coast.
    "We were waiting for the boat. We were almost there," said the woman, who did not give her name.
    The slave auction footage has triggered an outcry across Africa, bringing to public consciousness a situation that has previously been condemned by many non-governmental groups and observers.
    Music and football stars have expressed their outrage at the revelations, including Ivorian reggae singers Alpha Blondy and Tiken Jah Fakoly, as well as footballer Didier Drogba.
    "It is a double indignation, a cry from the heart: I am shocked to see the children of Africa die... trying to find a better tomorrow," said A'Salfo, lead singer of the group Magic System.
    "A humiliation for Africa."
    The United Nations said the slavery auctions should be investigated as possible crimes against humanity, and the issue will be on agenda at an African Union-EU summit on November 29 to 30 in Abidjan.

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    Saturday, November 18, 2017

    600 African migrants rescued near Spain


    by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24, Madrid


      © AFP/File | The number of people arriving by sea in Spain has nearly tripled over the last year to 17,687

      MADRID - 
      Around 600 African migrants were rescued off the coast of Spain in 24 hours, a sea rescue patrol said Saturday.
      The Guardia Civil and Salvamento Maritimo rescue service added that operations to recover further migrants were still under way.
      Spain is the third busiest gateway for migrants arriving in Europe, but far behind Italy and Greece. However, the number of people arriving by sea in Spain has nearly tripled over the last year to 17,687.
      Many Africans undertaking the long route to Europe are choosing to avoid crossing danger-ridden Libya to get to Italy along the so-called central Mediterranean route, and choosing instead to get there via Morocco and Spain.
      On Saturday, most of the migrants arrived in the south-eastern region of Murcia, where 431 people aboard 41 makeshift boats were discovered.
      Patrols found more than 110 people in the Alboran Sea, between Morocco and Spain's Andalusian coast.
      Operations were also conducted in the Strait of Gibraltar, recovering 48 people on four makeshift boats.
      The rescues were carried out by the Navy, the Guardia Civil police and Salvamento Maritimo.
      According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) close to 160,000 people have made the dangerous crossing to Europe this year and almost 3,000 more died or went missing while trying.

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