The RoRo Nivin, with Panamanian flag, rescued, last week, 81 maritime migrants but 79 of them refuse to disembark from the ship off the coast of Misrata in Libya. The migrants refuse to disembark in Misrata as a result of the fear of being sent back to Libyan detention camps.
On 10 November, the cargo ship reached the port of Misrata (187 km east of Tripoli), carrying 95 refugees and migrants who were rescued 115 miles east of Tripoli, after leaving Libya on a raft. The migrants, subsequently refused to disembark from the vessel to Libyan soil. The individuals onboard comprise of Bangladeshi, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Pakistani, Somali, South Sudanese and Sudanese nationals, and initially included one woman and one infant. Some 28 of the migrants are estimated to be minors.
This is the first documented case of its kind and an official of Libya’s navy called it a ‘dangerous mutiny’ that can encourage more of such behaviour in the future.
Médecins Sans Frontières medical teams were granted access by the Libyan coastguard so they could treat all those in need.
On 14 November, a total of 14 individuals, including a woman and a three-month-old baby, voluntarily disembarked the vessel.
The humanitarian community has been closely monitoring the situation since its beginning, and ensured that the necessary assistance is being provided to people on the boat. Humanitarian partners are providing water, food and core relief items to the people aboard the ship alongside medical assistance.
The humanitarian community also said that disembarkation after search and rescue should be done to a place of safety, and calls for the peaceful resolution of the situation.
As reported by The Guardian, the death toll in the Mediterranean has fallen in the past year, but the number of those drowning as a proportion of arrivals in Italy has risen sharply in the past few months. The possibility of dying during the crossing is now three times higher and according to the International Organization for Migration, so far in 2018 more than 21,000 people have made the crossing and 2,054 have died.
