A catalogue of failures by Nato warships and European coastguards led to the deaths of dozens of migrants left adrift at sea, according to a damning official report into the fate of a refugee boat in the Mediterranean whose distress calls went unanswered for days.
A nine-month investigation by the Council of Europe – the continent’s 47-nation human rights watchdog, which oversees the European court of human rights – has unearthed human and institutional failings that condemned the boat’s occupants to their fate.
Errors by military and commercial vessels sailing nearby, plus ambiguity in the coastguards’ distress calls and confusion about which authorities were responsible for mounting a rescue, were compounded by a long-term lack of planning by the UN, Nato and European nations over the inevitable increase in refugees fleeing north Africa during the international intervention in Libya.
Back in February I wrote about Frontex (the EU organization that serves as a border police for the continent) and their role in the deaths of migrants both in the Mediterranean sea and in the internment camps financed by the EU around Africa. Now, the Council of Europe have released a report with more details regarding the deaths of migrants trying to reach the coast in May last year. The report can be downloaded in its entirety here.
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