57 Eritrean Asylum Seekers

Reportedly Saved From a Sinking

Boat but Secretly Incarcerated in Libya;

Forced Repatriation Said to be a High Possible

By

Nharnet Stringer (Europe)

Tesfai Teklezghi, the ELF-RC representative in France, received a call last night, 25 May 2007, confirming to him that over 50 Eritreans who were missing in the Mediterranean Sea are safe but in a very bad condition in a secret detention camp in Libya which may have the intention of sending them back to Eritrea secretly.

One of the detained 50 or so Eritreans has confirmed in a call to his sister in Europe that the missing boat was rescued by Libyan authorities and that the asylum seekers (called “illegal immigrants” in the press) are held in prison which is kept secret from representatives of the UNHCR and other humanitarian and human rights agencies who have been keenly following the fate of Eritrea’s “boat people”.  The caller from the Libyan prison claimed to have obtained access to a mobile phone from a Libyan prison guard who allowed him to make one call at the cost of 50 euros.

The caller further informed his sister that their situation in the isolated prison where they stayed for three days is very bad and that the Libyan authorities appear to be preparing to fly them secretly back to Eritrea before the UNHCR, Amnesty International and other concerned human rights organizations know about it. The sister of the caller appealed to Tesfai Teklezghi to alert all Eritrean opposition forces and humanitarian organizations to help stop the possible forced expatriation of the 57 Eritrean asylum seekers detained in Libya.

The only good news is that their boat did not sink in the sea as was previously feared.

Last desperate bid to trace 57 missing Eritreans

We've searched everywhere - AFM

Herman Grech

An Italian rescue aircraft was dispatched to the Sicilian channel yesterday in a last desperate bid to trace 57 Eritreans whose boat disappeared on Monday.

While the Armed Forces of Malta called off the search, saying it had done everything possible to retrieve the immigrants, the UN agency for refugees convinced the Sicilian port authorities not to give up as yet.

Details about the case released yesterday show that the boat consisted of 57 illegal immigrants, including six children, and not 53, as initially believed. There were 28 men, 23 women and six small children on board. Upon closer inspection, photos taken by the AFM show a woman holding a baby.

The immigrants thought they had been rescued when they saw an AFM aircraft flying above them on Monday morning. But there was no trace of the 10-metre boat by the time the AFM's rescue vessel reached the area in the afternoon.

The UNHCR reported that one of the immigrants was speaking to an Eritrean relative in Bologna, Italy, on a satellite phone when the AFM aircraft was overflying the boat. The woman on board said she was grateful help was at hand after the immigrants relayed a distress call when they were about 80 miles south of the island.

By that time, the person steering the boat was unwell and vomiting. Some of the immigrants were seen wearing life-vests and were bailing water out of the boat with jerry cans.

After taking the coordinates of the area, and shooting photos, the aircraft returned to base to refuel, where the AFM said it dispatched a vessel at once.

The situation on board the boat deteriorated and water kept pouring in, prompting the immigrants to make distress calls to relatives in Bologna, Bergamo and even the UK, according to the UNHCR.

The last communication between the passengers and their relatives in Europe took place between 2.30 and 3 p.m. The AFM aircraft returned to the scene at about 4 p.m. and the rescue vessel arrived some two hours later. By that time, the sea conditions took a turn for the worse and the relatives could not contact the immigrants.

AFM commander Carmel Vassallo told The Times the army left no stone unturned in trying to locate the missing Africans after repeated attempts to contact them via satellite phone had failed.

"If a fatal accident did happen, then why didn't we even find those who were wearing lifejackets.

"Who knows? Maybe the wind blew them completely off course... or maybe they landed somewhere else, like Sicily.

"Between Monday and Wednesday we were still monitoring the same area, so much so that we rescued 24 people. But where are we going to look for this boat of 50 plus people? We've searched everywhere. It just disappeared," Brig. Vassallo said.

Asked whether he believed the immigrants could still be alive after so many days at sea, Brig. Vassallo said their fate would be determined by a number of factors.

"It depends on the provisions they have. Let's not forget that it's very hot during the day, cold at night and that most of them would not even be used to the sea."

Still, Neil Falzon, head of the UNCHR office in Malta, has not given up hope of finding the immigrants.

He said one of the relatives of the immigrants received a phone call from a different satellite phone on Wednesday afternoon, but the caller could not be identified - rekindling faint hopes that the Eritreans may still be alive.

"We're trying to do all we can. We're also trying to rope in Frontex to help. We still haven't lost hope," Dr Falzon said.

The International Organisation for Migration said this new drama demonstrates once more the dangers migrants are being exposed to.

While immigrants are often unaware of the real risks, IOM said smugglers and their often well-connected accomplices should be held responsible for such deaths.

"We fear that the more than 50 missing migrants have become part of the thousands estimated to have perished on the high seas in recent years trying to reach Europe. The drama underlines the need to improve rescue at sea facilities."

UNHCR urges increased search

by Alan Fenech, di-ve news
 

GENEVA/Malta (di-ve news)--May 23, 2007 -- 1830CEST-- The UN refugee agency is very concerned about the fate of 53 people missing on a boat some 80 nautical miles south of Malta and is urging regional authorities to step up their search efforts.
The Armed Forces of Malta spotted the boat from a plane on Monday 21st May, but after sending a patrol boat to the area could not locate the boat and its passengers. Aerial photographs taken by the Maltese authorities showed the boat to be overloaded with the people on board in distress apparently bailing out water with a jerry can.

Boat passengers managed to contact relatives in Italy on Monday by satellite phone who in turn alerted the Italian maritime authorities to the precarious condition of those on board. But on Tuesday, all attempts to contact the passengers by phone failed.

UNHCR is appealing to governments in the region to increase coordinated efforts to trace the boat and provide assistance to those on board, some of whom may be asylum seekers fleeing persecution or armed conflict.

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