#BreakingNews: About 56lives at risk & no action. The ppl who contacted us left #Lybia days ago. Their distress has been known to the Libyan, Italian& Maltese authorities since at least afternoon, without any steps taken.
They are desperately calling for help & are afraid to die.
We lost contact to the boat in distress at 22.22h. All authorities were repeatedly informed but are not reacting adequately. To our knowledge no rescue asset has been sent out. We do not know whether the 56 people will survive yet another night in the #Med. Do not let them drown!
The night has passed and we had no more contact with the the boat. The so-called Libyan Coastguard & European authorities are ignoring our requests to urgently rescue. This is an illegal act of non-assistance!
"We need help" – at 7:45 CEST we were able to reconnect to the boat. The situation is urgent! They could not pass an updated GPS position to us again. After 18 hours of non-assistance, will #Europe finally launch a rescue operation?
🔴A tragedy is in the making and nobody is intervening! At 10.15h we received another GPS position from the boat and informed authorities. As the so-called Libyan coastguard is un-reachable we again informed the #Italian coastguard. It seems they are NOT going to intervene!
The people on board say that water is entering the boat and that several people, including children, have gone overboard. We fear that there have been fatalities. What else do authorities need to know before taking responsibility?
At 13h the people on board said: “we heard about human rights, where are they? Please help us!” These actors are informed but have so far failed to engage: @EUNAVFORMED_OHQ, @guardiacostiera, the French coastguards, the Maltese Armed Forces, and the so-called Libyan coastguards.
@EUNAVFORMED_OHQ @guardiacostiera The media reported that one boat was found and returned to #Libya. This is NOT the same boat that called us in distress: we have spoken to them less than an hour ago. They are still in distress at sea with no rescue in sight. They have now been at sea for over 60 hours!
@EUNAVFORMED_OHQ @guardiacostiera The last time we spoke to the people on board was at 19.34h – since then they could not be reached. #European authorities tell us the Libyan authorities are responsible but the so-called Libyan CG are not available. Will the people have to try to survive yet another night at sea?
Finally, after 80h in distress at sea & shameful European non-assistance, the boat that contacted us seems to have been found by the so-called Libyan CG about 1 hour ago. @Refugees & Libyan authorities confirm this. As we lost contact to the boat at 3am we hope it's the same one!
@Refugees A rubber boat can capsize at any moment. European and Libyan authorities knew that but left the boat at risk for 2 days. This is a scandal and we hope that the 2 people in critical condition will not lose their lives because of such collective EU-Libyan policy of non-assistance.
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