NGO rescues off Libya encourage traffickers, says EU borders chief

Head of Frontex calls for rescue operations in Med to be re-evaluated and says NGOs work ineffectively with security agencies

 People trying to cross the Mediterranean are rescued by a Maltese NGO and the Italian Red Cross off the Libyan coast. Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor-Monday 27 February 2017

NGOs who rescue people in the sea off Libya are encouraging traffickers who profit from dangerous Mediterranean crossings, the head of the EU border agency Frontex has said.

Speaking to Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, Fabrice Leggeri called for rescue operations to be re-evaluated and accused NGOs of ineffectively cooperating with security agencies against human traffickers.

The comments provoked a bitter row with charities and leftwing groups, who said there was no evidence of a lack of cooperation and that the alternative to rescue operations was to leave people to their deaths.

Leggeri said 40% of recent rescue operations at sea off the north African country were carried out by non-government organisations, making it impossible to check the origins of the migrants or their smuggling routes if the NGOs did not cooperate.

Luise Amtsberg, spokeswoman on refugees for the Greens in the German parliament, denounced Leggeri’s comments. “The number of dead would be much higher without the tireless commitment of non-governmental organisations so we are indebted to these organisations,” she said.

In his interview, Leggeri said that under maritime law everyone at sea had a duty to rescue vessels and people in distress. “But we must avoid supporting the business of criminal networks and traffickers in Libya through European vessels picking up migrants ever closer to the Libyan coast.

“This leads traffickers to force even more migrants on to unseaworthy boats with insufficient water and fuel than in previous years.”

He also claimed some NGOs cooperated poorly with EU security agencies, which “makes it more difficult ... to gain information on trafficking networks through interviews with migrants and to open police investigations”.

MSF labelled the charges “extremely serious and damaging” and said its humanitarian action was not “the cause but a response” to the crisis.

Aurélie Ponthieu, the humanitarian adviser on displacement at Médecins Sans Frontières, said its only purpose was to save lives.

“It is very disturbing that we are hearing these criticisms from Frontex via the media when they will not meet with us,” she said. “We have asked for a meeting to respond to these criticisms and there is no reply.

“What is the alternative but to let even more people die? We are not encouraging the smugglers, but it is not our job to act as a law enforcement agency … [and] not our job to cooperate with law enforcement agencies about the smugglers.

“We are a humanitarian agency, and we carry out proactive search and rescue operations because the alternative is that hundreds of people will die from drowning, asphyxiation and dehydration. If we just wait 60 miles out to sea for boats that may pass by chance, rather than going to the areas where the smugglers are operating, there will be many more deaths.”

The UN has said nightmarish conditions in Libya were helping drive a surge in the numbers of migrants attempting to reach Italy in the depths of winter.

European efforts to close the route are also thought to be behind a 30-40% increase in the number of mainly African migrants who have landed at Italian ports in the first two months of this year, compared with the same period in 2015 and 2016.

More than 2,700 people have been rescued in recent days, including a newborn delivered on a Norwegian police vessel, lifting the total arrivals for January and February above 12,000.

Also speaking to Die Welt, the new president of the European parliament, Antonio Tajani, proposed the EU should set up reception centres for asylum seekers in Libya, taking over the role currently played by smugglers and the state.

Tajani warned that unless Europe acted now 20 million African people would come to Europe over the next few years.

The proposed Libyan detention centres should not become “concentration camps” but should have adequate equipment to ensure refugees live in dignified conditions with access to sufficient medical care, Tajani added.

Conditions in more than 30 existing detention centres, both those run illegally by smugglers and by militias nominally on behalf of the Libyan ministry of justice, violate human rights, the EU has said.

A leaked report from the EU external action service describes Libyan border management as “in a state of complete disarray and unable to combat smuggling”, adding smuggling is “a low-risk, high-value” source of income for organised crime.

Echoing the report, Leggeri added: “There is no stable state. At present, we have virtually no contact at the operational level in order to promote effective border protection. We are now helping to train 60 officers of a possibly future Libyan coastguard. But this is at most a beginning.”

He said work to train a Libyan coastguard to operate inside Libyan waters had only just begun. Overseas vessels are forbidden from operating in Libyan waters, and cannot send back refugees rescued in international waters.