EUROPE

Doctors Group Recounts Migrant Rescue as E.U. Plans Crackdown on Smuggling Rings

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Migrants on board the Phoenix, a rescue ship operated by a private nonprofit organization, in Augusta, Sicily, on Saturday. Francesco Malavolta/Associated Press 

UNITED NATIONS — Loaded with life jackets, medics and search-and-rescue teams, the ship sailed from port in Malta early last Thursday morning in search of migrants stranded at sea.
The first dinghy was found by midday, a wooden fishing boat, piled with 118 people, including 25 children, said Will Turner, head of a Doctors Without Borders team on board. The sea was rough. The wind swept the boat from side to side in six-foot swells, he recalled. The toughest part was ensuring that the babies — there were nine children under 5 — could be handed over safely, not dropped into the water or crushed between the boats.
Mr. Turner told this story on Friday in a Skype interview from the ship, the Phoenix, operated by a private nonprofit called the Migrant Offshore Aid Station, as the ship headed toward Sicily to drop off the migrants. On board were 100 other migrants, rescued later in the day on Thursday. The medics treated them for dehydration, some for hypothermia. One woman was pregnant.
The private rescue efforts come as the European Union prepares to launch military operations against smuggling rings that set off from Libya and cross the Mediterranean, in boats crammed with desperate migrants. The European Union’s top foreign policy official, Federica Mogherini, is scheduled to meet with diplomats on the United Nations Security Council on Monday, seeking authorization to launch military operations on international waters as well as on Libyan shores.




Migrants disembarked in Sicily on Thursday from the Phoenix, a ship operated by a private nonprofit. Francesco Malavolta/Associated Press 

The European Union has said it will intensify border protection efforts on the Mediterranean — currently, it falls largely on the Italians — but humanitarian groups have said the efforts fall far short of the relief that migrants need to reach safety and have a chance to apply for political asylum.
Most of the migrants rescued from the first boat on Thursday were from Somalia and Syria. Among them was a father from the Yarmouk camp in a suburb of Damascus that has been a battleground between Syrian forces and a variety of jihadist groups in recent weeks. He told Mr. Turner that he left three weeks ago with his wife and two children when staying in Yarmouk became untenable. The United Nations has said that food and basic supplies had dwindled in the area, and that many residents were near the point of starvation.
Asked about the military operations, Mr. Turner said he had heard the migrants who were rescued speak only of the dire circumstances they were leaving, including the unending war in Syria. “The lack of safe and legal pathways for people to claim asylum in Europe unfortunately forces them into the hands of smugglers, a booming industry, and forces them to take a treacherous journey, where they risk losing their life,” he said.
On the way, Mr. Turner recalled, they saw the remnants of another wooden fishing boat — this one empty. He said its passengers were rescued over the weekend, one of the busiest periods of crossing so far this year.
Security Council diplomats have said they would seek the consent of the Libyan government for the military operations, but that is a tricky matter considering that Libya is ruled by rival factions that run different portions of the country.
The Libyan ambassador to the United Nations, who represents the so-called Tobruk Bayda government, said his government was in no position to give the European Union permission to carry out military operations on the western coast of Libya, the departure point for most migrant boats. “If we give permission about territory which is not under control by the government it will be taken as propaganda by the other side,” said Ibrahim Dabbashi, the Libyan envoy. “Certainly once we have control, we will cooperate.”
Whether Russia will consent to a Security Council resolution to authorize European boots on Libyan soil remains to be seen. Russia and China remain critical of the last resolution authorizing military intervention in Libya. That resolution, also under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, which authorizes military force, was designed to protect civilians in the conflict but ended ultimately with the ouster of Libya’s longtime leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011.