Refugee rescue boats to defy 'criminal' EU policy and return to Mediterranean

Médecins Sans Frontières to deploy new vessel to replace Aquarius

The Italian government has waged war against the Aquarius rescue vessel (AFP/Getty Images)

More search and rescue boats will defy "criminal" EU policies towards refugees and return to saving people from drowning in the Mediterranean, the charity that helps coordinate the vessels has announced.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) had withdrawn its main rescue ship after what it calls a "sustained two-year campaign by EU governments to stop virtually all humanitarian action at sea".

The European Council last year voted to side with Italy's far-right government and condemn the rescue of drowning migrants, warning the boats to stay away.

Italy's anti-migrant interior minister Matteo Salvini has since banned rescue boats from operating out of Italy and arrested members of their crews, as part of his campaign against the ships.

In December last year the Aquarius, a ship operated by MSF, was forced to end rescue operations after it was confined to port following a campaign by the Italian government. It had assisted nearly 30,000 people since 2016.

But MSF now says it will deploy another vessel, the Ocean Viking, from the end of July. The Norwegian-flagged ship can carry 200 survivors, includes a medical clinic, and has a crew of around 30 people. It is not yet clear where the ship will operate from.

“Politicians would have you believe that the deaths of hundreds of people at sea, and the suffering of thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in Libya, are the acceptable price of attempts to control migration,” said Sam Turner, MSF Head of Mission for Search and Rescue and Libya.

“The cold reality is that while they herald the end of the so-called European migration crisis, they are knowingly turning a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis these policies perpetuate in Libya and at sea.

“These deaths and suffering are preventable, and as long as it continues, we refuse to sit idle."

The return to rescue work for MSF comes after a surge in fighting in Libya, which has created yet more refugees. 100,000 people are thought to have been displaced by fighting near the country's capital Tripoli in the last three months.

Over 2,000 people are estimated to have drowned in the Mediterranean in 2018. EU policy, confirmed at a summit in Brussels a year ago, is to enable the Libyan coastguard to forcibly intercept people trying to cross to Europe and return them to Libya - a war zone wracked by armed violence.

MSF says 14,000 people were intercepted by the Libyan coastguard in 2018 and that the policy is a clear violation of international law.

Ships operated independently or by other NGOs have continued to run the Italian blockade to rescue migrants and defy EU policy. Earlier this month 41 refugees and migrants managed to reach Italy on the Italian-flagged vessel Alex, which landed in Lampedusa. The ship was immediately seized by the Italian coastguard and its captain put under investigation for "assisting illegal immigration".

Also this month the captain of another vessel, the Sea Watch 3, was freed by an Italian court. 31-year-old Alessandra Vella had run an Italian naval blockade of Lampedusa, ramming a police boat, to bring 41 rescued refugees ashore. The court found that she had not committed a crime because she had been following her duty to preserve human life.