Unacceptable for NGO vessels to race the Libyan coastguard to pick up migrants - PM

It was unacceptable that some NGO rescue vessels issued their coordinates on social media such that traffickers’ boats immediately homed in to them, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told Parliament on Monday. It was also unacceptable that NGO boats raced to pick up migrants who were not in distress within Libyan waters when the Libya coastguard was preparing to pick them up itself. Dr Muscat was replying to questions after giving a statement on the recent controversy involving 49 migrants picked up by NGOs and eventually disembarked in Malta. The prime minister said the Libyan coastguard, financed and trained mostly by the European Union, was doing good work. According to the UNHCR, it picked up 14,000 people in the past 14 months. The coast guard, he stressed, should be allowed to work. He had no problem with NGOs helping to rescue persons in distress, supplementing the work of the armed forces. But what he was insisting upon was that everyone should follow the rules. There had been instances of interceptions by NGO rescue vessels of persons not necessarily in distress which the Libyan coastguard was itself preparing to pick up. Situations then developed where the migrants did not...