The Japans Times | 24.05.2017

Dozens on sinking dinghy lost at sea, rescued migrants tell UNHCR

ROME – Migrants rescued off the Libyan coast have described discovering a shipwrecked dinghy at sea, saying dozens of people including children were lost to the waves, the UNHCR and IOM said Tuesday.

The migrants, interviewed by the U.N. refugee agency and International Organization for Migration on Monday, said they had set off from Sabratah on Friday in a dinghy carrying 130 people.

Later that day they came across a dinghy that had almost sunk, with four men still clinging to it, who they rescued.

The survivors, four Nigerians, said they had set off from Tripoli a few hours earlier with 156 others, including many women and children, all of whom drowned when their rubber vessel deflated.

The remaining dinghy was rescued Friday night by the Italian coast guard, which brought a total of 952 people saved in various operations to Taranto in southern Italy on Monday.

Neither the UNHCR nor the IOM was able to speak directly with the four surviving Nigerians and it would be very difficult to track them down now.

Italy puts newly arrived migrants straight onto buses headed for reception centers throughout the country.

The country’s coast guard said Tuesday it had coordinated the rescue of 1,000 migrants of Libya traveling on six dinghies and two boats.

They were pulled to safety by a Save the Children aid boat, the SOS Mediterranee and the German Jugend Rettet.

The crew of the Jugend Rettet said that during the rescue they had witnessed a boat identified as the Libyan coast guard firing shots at other migrant dinghies, forcing them back into Libyan waters.

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Al Jazeera | 24.05.2017

1,000 asylum seekers stranded in the Mediterranean

Italian Coast Guard launches major rescue operation with about 700 people saved, many of them children.

About 1,000 asylum seekers stranded in the Mediterranean after setting off from Libya prompted a massive rescue effort with hundreds being saved.

Four Italian Coast Guard ships went out to recover the asylum seekers on Tuesday from at least 11 rafts and barges trying to reach European shores. Joining the Italians were vessels belonging to the UN’s Save the Children, the SOS Mediterranee, and the German NGO Jugend Rettet.

According to reports by the Jugend Rettet, its crew witnessed shots fired from a ship with Libyan Coast Guard markings in the direction of one raft. A photo posted on Twitter suggests the Libyan Coast Guard boarded one raft and held passengers at gun point.

Jugend Rettet also said several boats were pushed back into Libyan waters, which would represent a violation of the non-refoulement principle. Under this principle of international law, asylum seekers are not to be returned to a country where they face danger of persecution.

SOS Mediterranee reported that 700 people had been safely rescued and taken aboard. Many were children, it said.

The head of the United Nations refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, urged Libyan authorities to free all asylum seekers and refugees from its detention centres, describing the conditions as „shocking“.

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Am 24.05.2017:

Today there were BREAKING NEWS from Jugend Rettet e.V.‏ on twitter about an armed attack on boat people from the Libyan coast guard: