EU presses Libya for answers after reported shooting at migrant rescue ship

The European Union has demanded clarification from Libyan authorities after reports surfaced that a rescue ship operated by a humanitarian NGO came under heavy fire off the Libyan coast, according to Infomigrants. The incident has also reignited calls in Italy to scrap the country’s migrant cooperation deal with Libya.

“We have asked the Libyan authorities to explain what happened. It is their responsibility to clarify the facts,” an EU spokesperson said.

The Ocean Viking, run by the Italo-Franco-German-Swiss NGO SOS Méditerranée, reported that a Libyan coast guard vessel fired hundreds of rounds at it for more than ten minutes on August 25, shortly after the ship had rescued a group of migrants.

Angelo Bonelli, a lawmaker from Italy’s Green-Left Alliance, accused Rome of complicity, claiming the vessel used in the attack had been supplied to Libya by Italy.

“The shots that endangered humanitarian workers and shipwrecked people were fired from an Italian vessel handed over to militias operating outside of all legality. The silence of the Meloni government is deafening," he said.

Italy’s interior minister, however, argued that the Ocean Viking had “disobeyed orders,” stressing that the responsibility for handling rescues lies with states, not NGOs.

Rights groups have long accused Italy and other European nations of turning a blind eye to migrant abuse in North Africa, where they have struck migrant control deals worth millions of euros with governments criticized for poor human rights records.