Tag: migrants

The tanker El Hiblu 1 rescued about 100 migrants on February 27, when three amongst them began to riot and threaten violence when they realized that they were being returned to Libya. The thee teenage migrants have been charged in a court in Malta after hijacking the commercial oil tanker that had rescued them.

Refugees and migrants have reportedly hijacked the Palau-flagged tanker 'Elhiblu 1', after the ship rescued them off the coast of Libya, Tuesday night. The Maltese navy took over control shortly after and the ship arrived in Malta Thursday morning. 

At least 10 migrants lost their lives on March 19, when their boat sank off the Libyan coast near the western town of Sabratha. 17 others were rescued, a Sabratha’s security operations spokesman, said, and were transferred to the hospital. The United Nations migration agency IOM informed that 15 survivors were brought to a hospital, but it did not know how many people had been on board the boat.

On March 8, the crew of the US Navy destroyer USS James E. Williams helped rescue 26 people from a vessel in distress 48 miles southeast of Long Key attempting to illegally enter the United States. The US Coast Guard received a notification from a good Samaritan boat reporting for a 30-foot disabled wooden sail vessel with passengers waiving for help.

The International Organization for Migration, the UN Migration Agency, reported that 8,956 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by sea through 27 February, marking a 12% decrease from the 10,243 arriving the same period last year. Deaths on the Mediterranean Sea reached 224, which is one half the 439 deaths that took place the same period in 2018. 

Human Rights at Sea published a new briefing note on the ‘Legal and Policy Matters Arising from the Increased Criminalisation of the Civil Society Search and Rescue Activities in the Mediterranean’. This is the second publication on the issue of the increasing levels of criminalisation of civil society search and rescue (SAR) organisations.

British lifeboats and Border Force vessels rescued more than 30 migrants and refugees, including a child, off Dover, Kent in their attempt to cross the English Channel to England in a dangerously overcrowded small boat. Specifically, their boat was so full that a Border Force rigid inflatable boat had to make two journeys to take them to a cutter.

An Italian Senate committee voted, on February 19, to block the investigation into accusations of kidnapping against Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, when he decided to hold 150 migrants on board a ship for five days on August 2018, according to Reuters.

Four United Nations human rights officials have strongly criticised the British Government's scheme governing protection and labour rights for migrant fishermen from outside the European Economic Area (EEA). The letter focuses on modern forms of racism, slavery and on trafficking in persons.

Human Rights at Sea issued its independent review and commentary into the 'Human Rights and International Rule of Law Ramifications of the De-Flagging of M/V Aquarius Dignitus'. This is a vessel chartered by SOS Méditerranée and previously operated along with the Amsterdam-based branch of Médecins Sans Frontières, rescuing men, women and children in the Central Mediterranean Sea.