Following Italian orders to return migrants aboard the MV Lifeline to Libya would have breached international law and the migrants' human rights, Mission Lifeline co-founder Axel Steier told The Malta Independent yesterday.
Two hundred thirty-four migrants arrived in Malta on Wednesday after being stuck at sea for six days. Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had announced that a small number of countries, including Malta, were willing to take in the migrants after their eligibility to seek asylum had been assessed.
Upon arrival, a representative of Mission Lifeline, the German NGO that carried out the rescue, said that many of the women on the vessel had been raped in Libya, while many of the men had been tortured.
Prime Minister Muscat said, during a press conference on Wednesday, that the decision taken by the vessel's captain to ignore directions given by Italian authorities co-ordinating the rescue, had been in violation of international law.
Asked by The Malta Independent for the NGO's side of the story, Steier said: "We followed all instructions except one - to go to Libya with the people." He added that they had refused to comply with this instruction as it would have been "a violation of international law; a violation of the people's human rights."
Steier said that Italy was breaking the law: "They support the Libyan coastguard which acts illegally. This has to be stopped because we, as Europeans, have to uphold our values, which means not supporting illegal actions. We need more solidarity in Europe so that all countries become involved in the solutions.
"A solution needs to be found which respects the rights of the migrants, who have a right to apply for asylum and have a right to live. We need a good environment to rescue people. The best way to shut down smugglers is to offer fleeing persons safe passage."
He said that the NGO was co-operating with the authorities. "We are thankful for Malta, as by law, it did not have to take in the refugees. We are also thankful for the solidarity and for the future. With a European solution, we will find a way to handle this issue."
Asked if he had a message for the Italian government, he said it should respect international law in the future, "stop paying Libyan militias, and stop the war against NGOs, because it is a war against refugees."
He was asked about the vessel's registration with the Dutch authorities and what documentation they could present to back their case in this regard, given that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had said that that the Dutch authorities had formally refuted the fact that the vessel was registered under their flag.
The captain of the ship, Claus-Peter Reisch, was yesterday interviewed by police for a second time and is expected to be arraigned on Monday, mainly on charges relating to irregular ship registration.
"We have documents from the Dutch Watersportverbond, which means it is registered like thousands of boats in the Netherlands. We cannot understand this argumentation and we believe we acted legally. From our point of view, everything is alright."
He said that there were other boats operating with this kind of licence, adding that they had gone to other authorities in the past with this licence and it was accepted. "We don't see any reason why it is not ok, especially since the Netherlands is a big seafaring nation, like Malta, but there are liberal regulations for boat ownership, which is necessary as everybody has a boat and everybody sails under the Dutch flag with the same papers we have."
He told The Malta Independent that the crew were exhausted after the long ride, but fine.
The countries taking in the refugees are Norway, Malta, Portugal, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Belgium. In an official statement, yesterday, the government said Norway had offered to join the other eight EU member states, which officially announced their participation in the ad hoc initiative led by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for shared responsibility of the humanitarian crisis on board MV Lifeline.
In comments to this newspaper, an OPM spokesperson said: "The process for the migrants to be shared by the nine countries joining the ad hoc initiative led by the prime minister has already started and updates will be given in due course."
The OPM also said Malta was "actively working to re-open its embassy in Tripoli."
In other developments, a Spanish migrant rescue NGO yesterday said its vessel, the Open Arms, had been refused entry into Malta and Italy.
In a statement, the government said Malta "needs to ascertain that operations being conducted by entities using its port services and operating within the area of Maltese responsibility are in accordance with national and international rules. This includes, but is not solely limited to, the certification or registration of vessels involved. Given that there are investigations being carried out by independent authorities, and until these issues are clarified, Malta cannot allow entities, whose structure might be similar to the subject of investigations, to make use of Malta as their port of operations, and to enter or leave the said port. This is also in view of judicial processes that might ensue, and in order for the Maltese authorities not to be considered to be approving of systems of operations that might eventually be found to be carried out in breach of their own and international rules."
Photos by Alenka Falzon and Domenic Aquilina
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