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STORY: UNHCR / MEDITERRANEAN TRAGEDY
TRT: 1:38
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DATELINE: 27 AUGUST 2019, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Charlie Yaxley, Global Spokesperson, UNHCR:
“Since this morning, a rescue operation has been underway by the Libyan Coast Guard and local fishermen. They have pulled some 60 people ashore and rescued them and returned them nearby to the coastal city of Al Khums, some 100 km east of Tripoli. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency is providing the survivors with medical and humanitarian assistance. Many of them are from Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco, and from what they have told our staff we estimate that around 40 people may have drowned in this incident. And this comes just weeks after 150 people lost their lives in the largest Mediterranean shipwreck of this year, and it means that now more than 900 people have lost their lives across the Mediterranean this year trying to reach European shores. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling for a drastic shift now in the approach to the Mediterranean. We need increased search and rescue capacity, including a return of EU States’ search and rescue vessels, and the lifting of NGO operations both at sea and in the air. Their efforts should be recognized and acknowledged, not criminalized, not stigmatized. These tragedies must end. We cannot continue having expressions of sympathy when this loss of lives occurs. Instead we must now see meaningful action to prevent this death and to stop people from feeling they have to step foot on these boats in the first place.”
In the wake of the latest tragedy where some 40 people have believed to drown of the coast of Libya, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, called for “a drastic shift” in the approach to search and rescue efforts in the Mediterranean.
At least 40 people are estimated to have drowned off the coast of Libya in the latest boat disaster on the Mediterranean.
Some 60 survivors have been rescued and brought to shore in the coastal town of Al-Khoms, around 100 kilometers east of Tripoli. A rescue operation, carried by the Libyan Coast Guard and local fisherman, has been underway since this morning and is ongoing.
The UNHCR’s spokesperson Charlie Yaxley said Tuesday (27 Aug) in Geneva: “we need increased search and rescue capacity, including a return of EU States’ search and rescue vessels, and the lifting of NGO operations both at sea and in the air. Their efforts should be recognized and acknowledged, not criminalized, not stigmatized.”
“These tragedies must end,” said Yaxley.
