The boat named Ras Ajdir, belonging to the Coast Guard and Security, managed to rescue 47 illegal immigrants, including one child, and 30 women that were found on a rubber boat, 30 miles north of the Sidi Belal area.
On Tuesday, Tariq Shanbour, head of the Coast Guard and Security Service, said to ArraedLG that the Coast Guard boat was on a reconnaissance mission when it received a message from the Coast Guard’s Operations Centre of the presence of an illegal immigration boat sending a distress call. He added that the boat diverted from its mission and headed directly to the exact location reported where they found the boat that was loaded with more than 110 illegal immigrants.
Shanbour pointed out that the intervention of the German SEA WATCH hindered the coast guard’s efforts to rescue all migrants.He accused the German organization of causing the death of a number of illegal immigrants. He described that immigrants were scrambling while still in the rubber boats, and some of them jumped from the coastguard boat to the sea to be able to access the German ship. The Italian Navy helped save some of the migrants by sending a helicopter and landing some additional rubber boats.
He said that the presence of vessels belonging to the German non-governmental organization “SEA WATCH” in the Libyan territorial waters violates national sovereignty, which is unacceptable.
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