Three NGOs are accused of collaborating with people smugglers from Libya

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The Italian judiciary has accused three NGOs helping to rescue refugees at sea of ​​cooperating with people's smugglers from Libya. According to investigators, 21 employees of Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières and Jugend Rettet have long communicated with smugglers and coordinated the departure and rescue of small overcrowded migrant boats. Le Temps wrote about the investigation.

According to the Italian police, this happened from spring to autumn 2017, the cooperation took place in 12 rescue operations. A large part of the documents was obtained by a police officer who infiltrated the workers of the rescue ship Vos Hestia of the Save the Children organization and filmed joint operations of smugglers and rescuers.

Police also used wiretaps and seized material from confiscated computers and telephones during the final raid. The resulting police report has 651 pages and accuses 21 people of circumventing the rescue system set up by the Italian authorities" and of cooperating with human smugglers, writes Le Figaro .

In the early morning, a group of Libyan smugglers arrived at the Vos Hestia and warned the ship's captain that a vessel full of refugees in need of rescue would soon appear. Immediately, a ship with 500 people on board actually appeared on the horizon, calmly held by one of the smugglers with a belt blow. Then the smugglers organized the transfer of refugees to Vos Hestia, which took them to the Italian shores with one smuggler. After three days, they sailed to the port of Reggio de Calabre and the Libyan smuggler soon disappeared without a trace, the operation from June 2017 describes the newspaper Le Temps.

Under maritime law, the crew of a ship that sees a vessel in distress must first inform the Maritime Rescue and Coordination Center (MRCC) in Rome, which may grant them permission to intervene. According to investigators, the crews of the rescue ships received GPS coordinates of the ships with migrants in advance, sailed as close to them as possible, and only then did the vessels report to the MRCC. Because they were closest, the MRCC often really ordered them to rescue refugees.

A total of 21 members of the ship's crews and coordinators of non-profit organizations have accused the Italian police, coming from Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Britain and Spain. They face between four months and 20 years in prison.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has issued a statement accusing it of committing crimes. According to them, the rescue of refugees fully complies with the law of the sea, with a total of 81,000 people allegedly surviving the journey across the sea.