Three private rescue ships in the Mediterranean are now waiting for ports in which to disembark the more than 500 migrants they collectively rescued. Sea-Watch 4 has 145 on board, the Geo Barents 470, and 34 people are on deck the Sea-Eye 4.
Early Wednesday morning, Libya’s coast guard reportedly issued numerous threats against the rescue ship Sea-Eye 4 in the Mediterranean, urging it to leave "Libyan territory." However, Sea-Eye says that the vessel was in international waters at the time, where ships are allowed to move freely.
Frontex is losing credibility following further allegations it was involved in pushbacks. Now, the private sea rescue organization Sea-Watch is alleging that the European border agency is implicated in so-called pullbacks near Malta as well, launching legal proceedings at the EU Court in Luxembourg.
More than 20 people lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean from Tunisia and Libya at the weekend. An official in the Tunisian town of Sfax said they have run out of room to bury the dead.
More than 4,000 migrants have been returned to Libya since the beginning of the year, according to the latest IOM numbers. The report comes after two boats in the past ten days have capsized off the Libyan coast, resulting in 53 presumed deaths.
A shipwreck off Libya on Monday has left at least 14 people missing, four people dead, and just two people rescued. Nearly 500 migrants and refugees have died attempting to cross the Central Mediterranean so far this year.
On Wednesday, the German foreign ministry announced it would be extending its participation in the EU monitoring mission Irini in the Mediterranean, but it would no longer commit to training the Libyan coast guard, due to concerns about their treatment of migrants. The trainings are part of the Irini mandate.
At least 70 migrants have been reported dead or missing off the Libyan coast in the past two weeks. Meanwhile, about 3,100 people have been intercepted at sea and returned to Libya.
The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, has called on Malta to review its cooperation with Libya, which she said is not a safe place to return migrants to.
On the five-year anniversary of a series of accords signed between Libya and the EU, human rights organizations have come out denouncing the agreements. Amnesty International says that over 82,000 migrants have been returned to Libya to "hellish" conditions because of the deals. They call for the EU to rethink its approach.
The aid organization Oxfam has denounced that over 20,000 migrants who were taken back by coast guards to Libya in 2021 have gone missing.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) fears that more than 30 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Tunisia. So far, only six bodies have been recovered.