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Migrants sit on a Norwegian Coast Guard boat after being transferred from the Italian Navy Ship Fulgosi during a migrant search and rescue mission off the Libyan coast. AP/Press Association Images

"We have a duty not to let these people die": A year of rescuing thousands in the Mediterranean

A look into the world of the Italian coastguard during testing times.

IT HAS BEEN a record year for Italy’s coastguard, with nearly 180,000 people rescued in the Mediterranean, longer days than ever before and, despite their efforts, thousands of victims.

In a small room in a soulless ministry building in the south of Rome, red telephones ring and operatives juggle with maps on giant screens on the walls as they coordinate all rescue operations off Libya.

“As soon as someone calls for help, we become conductors,” directing any nearby vessels — be they coastguard, military, private or commercial — to detour to the rescue zone, spokesman Filippo Marini told AFP.

In the gloom of the operations centre, SOS calls are reduced to little more than coordinates, handled with military precision.

Mideast Libya Migrants An African migrant rests after his rescue by the Libyan Coast Guard west of Tripoli AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

But the cries of desperate migrants, faces numbed by fear and hands outstretched for help as they slip off sinking dinghies, are not far off, with a video of past rescues playing on a loop on a giant screen in the corridor.

Spread up and down the 8,000 kilometres of Italian coastline, the 11,000 members of the coastguard are charged with ensuring maritime safety, protecting the ecosystem and regulating the fishing industry.

They traditionally survey an area of 500,000 square kilometres off Italy’s shores. But an underperforming coastguard in crisis-hit Libya means the Rome Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) actually has authority over most of the international waters between both countries.

More boats, fewer phones

Italy Migrants A man throws flowers during the burial of the 51 migrants whose lifeless bodies were discovered in the hull of a migrant boat north of Libya AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The seas teem with activity. Around 170,000 people were rescued from migrant boats in 2014, with another 153,000 picked up in 2015 and nearly 180,000 this year — including 4,000 just last week, despite worsening weather at sea.

And the smugglers have upped their game, sending more of their smaller boats — and dinghies rather than wooden vessels — and dispatching lots at the same time. This year saw a 40% rise in the number of boats rescued.

“The smugglers used to send bigger boats, each with a satellite phone” to call for aid, said Sergio Liardo, the centre’s head.

Now they set off four boats out with one phone.

Patrolling vessels can easily find the dinghy with the phone but have to look out for the other three, which can deflate and take water quickly. Drowning is not the only killer here: overcrowding, hypothermia or fuel burns can also finish off in a few hours people weakened by terrible conditions endured trying to get this far.

As well as the thousands of migrants lost in seconds to the waves — sometimes as the rescue crews look helplessly on — the coastguard’s near-daily press releases this year have provided a running tally of corpses discovered aboard dinghies.

Duty

Europe Migrants Migrants and refugees rest on the deck of a ship after being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea Mstyslav Chernov / AP photos Mstyslav Chernov / AP photos / AP photos

The NGO-led rescue vessels patrolling the area have testified to how difficult it can be to spot a dinghy in the immense blue and regularly warn some may be sinking without a trace.

“We cannot rule that out,” Liardo admits.

And while in the past each day of calm seas would see a handful of boats set off, this year saw a series of mass departures.

More than 13,000 people were rescued in one week at the end of May, some 14,000 others in five days of good weather in August — with a record hit with 7,000 people on 53 boats picked up in one day — and 6,000 more on October 3 alone.

In Italy, where reception centres are at bursting point, the figures have stirred up a storm, with the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement and anti-immigrant Northern League insisting it is not Rome’s job to rescue foreigners off Libya and house them here.

The government says rescue ops at sea will have cost €1.5 billion this year, with an extra €2.3 billion spent on reception.

“We have a duty not to let these people die. If we ignored it, we would have to answer to the Italian justice system,” Marini said.

“It’s also a question of human kindness,” he added.

- © AFP, 2016

Read: Skipper of migrant boat which sank killing up to 900 found guilty>

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    Mute kerrill thornhill
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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:21 AM

    >5000 Civilian dead, over 2000 kids. Collective punishment, denial of water, food & power – numerous atrocities & war crimes carried out with impunity. Scant reporting of the slaughter in western media, no calls for sanctions, no fundraisers or calls to provide arms to Palestinian resistance. Why do our media organisations deny Palestinians the same human dignity they gave Ukranians? or even advocate for the basic application of international law? just silently supporting genocide. The ugly underbelly of the EU & US is there for all the world to see

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:25 AM

    @kerrill thornhill: it’s shocking isn’t it, Israel targeting hospitals and civilian infrastructure, 2500 children dead for israels insatiable thirst for stealing land.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:33 AM

    @kerrill thornhill: what about the hundreds of thousands that putin has slaughtered?

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:51 AM

    first of all, you only have Hamas’s word for the casualty numbers. Secondly, you do know a large slice of the Palestinian leadership WANTS its civilians to die, don’t you? They know the gullible West laps up images of babies being pulled from rubble and will put pressure on Israel. It’s win/win for them. Newsflash: Islamists like ISIS and Hamas love death like we love life – they are a death cult. They don’t think like you. Just look at memri.org if you don’t believe me. If this were purely a territorial dispute, the Palestinians would’ve had a state of their own long ago. They object to a Jewish state in Islamic territory, end of. You think they wring their hands about Islamic colonialism the way our friend Kerill does about Western colonialism? Not a chance. They are Islamic supremacist.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:58 AM

    Russia had been sanctioned relentlessly, thrown out of international financial systems, Russian individuals wealth was take from them. I personally organised a fundraiser making €1.5k for Ujranian refugees, my home village was 25% Ukranian (welcomed with open arms) at one stage last year. The West bombed Russian infrastructure, provided >$150bn in weapons & military support, it runs non-stop propoganda for Ukraine. Conversely, the West provides bombs for Israel to kill Palestinian refugees, it denies them food, water & electricity and our media dehumanisees them. Both people are resisting illegal occupation – other the white western supremacy, how do you explain this absurd difference in treatment?

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    Oct 24th 2023, 11:02 AM

    @Squarepeg 01: There are thousand and thousands of images and videos of the destruction of Gaza, buildings razed and dismembered children, which our media is dutifully ignoring – you’ve lost the plot if you think the deaths are made up… Palestinians have been living there for centuries – you clearly don’t understand the term colonialism is you think Benny Netanyahu from Philadelhia is the local to the region…

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    Oct 24th 2023, 11:37 AM

    @kerrill thornhill: to reinterate, Hamas WANT their citizens to die and in many cases stop them from following Israeli instructions to evacuate so that they WILL die. Jews have been living in Palestine for centuries, too. Towns like Hebron had an uninterupted Jewish presence since Biblical times until the pogrom of 1929. ‘Oh but Jewish immigration stepped up following the 19th century Zionist project.’ Sure, but Arabs immigrated to work for the British, too. How come they’re not called illegal occupiers?
    There is a moral difference between people killed as collateral damage and terrorist gangs going house to house, raping women, burning families alive, shooting kids in the head, murdering babies in their cribs, abducting >200 hostages etc.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 11:49 AM

    @Squarepeg 01: Your argument is primarily an emotive racist diatribe.. I know many Arabs and Palestinians – they are no different to us. The number of people killed would indicate that Israel is considerably more barbaric – unless you think Palestinians are non-human? There are clear international borders (1967) between Israel and Palestine – the occupation is clearly defined in law as illegal, as are the settlements. The solution to this conflict is respecting both parties, international law and a negotiated peaceful coexistence.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 12:14 PM

    @kerrill thornhill: you are living in a fantasy land. Both sides covet the land, but only one party wants peaceful coexistence, the other wants to annihilate all Jews from Palestine. What clearer proof of that do you need than Hamas’s rampage on Oct 7th, which you never seem to mention.
    Nothing racist in what I said. Of course, the Palestinians are as human as you or I, but I was referring to their culture, which is absolutely different from ours. I mean, it’s not like they go to much trouble to hide it. They glorify martyrs by naming streets after them and paying their families rewards. This world is just a stepping stone to Paradise. Did you not know this?

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    Oct 24th 2023, 12:46 PM

    @Squarepeg 01: Your racist depiction of Arabs is ridiculous, straight from the daily telegraph. As is your insistence that Palestinians want to wipe out Israel – Fatah agree to the legal boundaries, even Hamas changed their charter to recognise the 1967 international boundaries. If you think Israel can continue illegally occupying & ethnically cleansing Palestine without starting a regional war – you are mistaken. World opinion is firmly in Palestinians court, and against the genocide in Gaza – Israel is alienating every one of it’s friends by ignoring international law.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 1:24 PM

    @kerrill thornhill: The settlements may exacerbate the situation, but the deeper problem for Islamists is the existence of Israel itself. You and the millions of other pro-Palestinian Westerners can continue to bury your heads in the sand about the types of people you are supporting all you like, but doing so has consequences. If they destroy Israel, do you think the West won’t be next? 10% of France’s population is Muslim. Many major European cities are already hotbeds of jihadi activity – what do you think it will be like as the Muslim population approaches parity? Putting Mulsim grievances down to Western colonialism would severely mischaracterise the situation – a very large number of them want to live under some form of sharia law. This is a spiritual battle, for us and them.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 3:43 PM

    @Squarepeg 01: You are completely ignoring the internationally recognised legal position, rambling about holy wars & spiritual battles – weirdos thinking the bible/torah is a property register started this mess. How about respecting the internationally recognised border, that over 130 countries have agreed to, along with Palestinian leadership. Just enforce this border, demilitarise the region and bring in peacekeepers. No one will win in a war

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    Oct 24th 2023, 5:07 PM

    @kerrill thornhill: with every reply you make, the more obvious it becomes that you don’t really understand the people you are supporting. You’re secular. You mouth the left wing shibboleths of ‘colonialism’ and ‘occupation’ while mocking ‘weirdos’ who believe in the Torah and the Bible. Are you so unself-aware not to realise how strongly your Palestinian buddies believe in the Qu’ran? Why do you think they shout ‘Alahu Akbar’ when they kill the Kafir? It’s funny in a way. Saul Alinsky taught the radical left how to use the values of the West against its own institutions in order to bring them down. Hamas and other Islamists are using a similar tactic, only this time they are hooking into the intersectional oppression narrative of the Left. In other words, you are being played.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 9:07 AM

    Where is kerrill the Russian bot? Where are you with your deflection?

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    Oct 24th 2023, 9:40 AM

    Last seen entering the Gaza strip in a hot-pants and gimp mask waving a rainbow flag.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 9:52 AM

    Good morning invisible man. I’m working, but will take a moment to share with you Bibis own published plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza below: EU/US politicians & media are aware of the plans, but have done nothing to stop this genocide – effectively controlled by military intelligence. They are blindly going along with a decades long campaign to dehumanise Palestinians, cover up their appalling treatment and normalise the llegal occupation. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-think-tank-lays-out-a-blueprint-for-the-complete-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/?utm_content=buffera2434&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer

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    Oct 24th 2023, 9:56 AM

    If our media is too cowardly to report the thousands of dead children and the carpet bombing of schools, hospitals and churches – I consider it an obligation to speak out about it. An anonymous person accusing me of deflection or being a bot, is quite ironic. Have a good day

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:32 AM

    @kerrill thornhill: tell it to putin, I’m sure he cares.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:34 AM

    Lol! He heard you! Kerrill the gimpo!

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