Thursday, September 18, 2025
LibyaReview
  • Home
  • Libya
  • Economy
  • Sport
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Libya
  • Economy
  • Sport
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
LibyaReview
No Result
View All Result
Home Libya

Report: Malta Cooperating with Libyan Coast Guard to Pushback Migrants

November 8, 2022
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The “Malta Independent” newspaper published a report revealing that Maltese officials have cooperated with the Libyan Coast Guard in pushing back migrants.

A spokesperson for Alarm Phone told the Malta Independent that, “Alarm Phone would be quite happy if Malta lived up to its duties: coordinating rescues, not coordinating pushbacks or forms of non-assistance or abandonment.”

He pointed out that “even when the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) is available to coordinate a rescue, it is choosing not to rescue boats in distress because the AFM is waiting for the boat to either drift into the Italian SAR zone, or for the boat to be picked up by Libyan authorities.”

The spokesperson noted that Malta and Libya brought up the 2020 Easter Sunday pushback, where asylum seekers were picked up by a fishing boat and then returned to Libya where they were sent to a detention centre. Five people died, and seven went missing by the time they were picked up at sea.

The official noted that this was a “clear case of Maltese non-assistance, and the orchestration of a pushback to Libya which cost lives.”

“This can be traced back to when Italy’s Matteo Salvini came to power in 2018. Malta followed with a very restrictive immigration policy, which had really dangerous consequences for those at sea. People were not being allowed to disembark quickly from NGO vessels, people were sent back to Libya, the spokesman said.

He added that Malta “supports the Libyan authorities in these ‘abductions’ at sea, where they are sent back to a place where torture has been documented for many years. All of this is not something that is made up.”

“From the Easter massacre of 2020 when the boat was returned to Libya, to the more recent cases of non-assistance, to the use of a merchant’s vessel to transfer people to Egypt, to pulling boats out of the Maltese SAR zone by the Libyan Coast Guard and coordinated by Maltese authorities,” he concluded.

Next Post

Libya Studying New Gas Pipelines with Egypt & Greece

POPULAR CATEGORIES

  • Home
  • Libya
  • Economy
  • Sport
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion

MUST READ

Indian National with ISIS Ties Arrested in Libya

Erdogan Signals Positive Shift in Relations With East Libya

Libya Remains Central Route for Migrant Crossings to Europe

Libya & US Launch Water Treatment Project to Boost Oil Fields

UNHCR Mourns Victims of Deadly Shipwreck Near Libya’s Tobruk

Libya’s Afriqiyah Airways on Brink of Collapse

EDITOR PICKS

Libya & Greece Reaffirm Commitment to Strengthening Bilateral Ties

Libya & US Agree to Expand Education Cooperation

London to Host Key Libyan Investment Event

Syrians in Libya Granted Residency Relief Until End of 2025

Libyan Army Officers Receive Advanced Training in Egypt

UNHCR Mourns Victims of Deadly Shipwreck Near Libya’s Tobruk

  • Home
  • Libya
  • Economy
  • Sport
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion

© 2024 LR

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Libya
  • Economy
  • Sport
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Opinion

© 2024 LR