New report reinforces Nato’s responsibility in left-to-die migrant boat tragedy

MORE: Interviews with survivors proves Nato ignored boat within its monitoring zone.

FULL REPORT

An independent forensic analysis into the death of 63 migrants aboard the 'left-to-die-boat' ignored by Nato vessels in the Mediterranean during the Libyan conflict, has concluded the migrants were abandoned by Maltese and Tunisian fishermen, the Italian and Maltese armed forces, as well as one patrol aircraft, one helicopter, and a military ship whose identities remain unknown.

The new report, which follows on the Council of Europe report by Dutch senator Tineke Strik, used oceanographic visualisations and spatial analysis to cross-reference the testimonies of the survivors.

Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, said that by combining these different sources they had arrived at the conclusion that the account of the survivors "was highly accurate and credible" and were able to produce a "coherent and precise picture" on the events that led to death of the 63 passengers in the Mediterranean while fleeing Libya in 2011.

The report said that fishermen, the Maltese and Italian rescue missions, and Nato had been informed of the distress signal of 72 migrants who had fled Tripoli on 27 March, 2011; but did not intervene in a way that could have averted their tragic fate.

Instead the migrants' vessel drifted slowly for 14 days in what was then one of the most surveilled maritime areas in the world, populated by at least 38 naval assets.

In several interviews, these survivors recounted the various points of contacts they had with the external world during this ordeal. This included describing the aircraft that flew over them, the distress call they sent out via satellite telephone and their visual sightings of a military helicopter which provided a few packets of biscuits and bottles of water and a military ship which failed to provide any assistance.

The key events have now been determined as the following:

• On 27 March 2011, between 1am and 3am CET, 72 people left Tripoli, Libya and headed in the direction of the island of Lampedusa.
• At 3:55pm, an aircraft flew over the migrants' vessel notifying the Italian Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre (Rome MRCC) of its sighting. This fly-over generated a photograph and provided the exact location of the vessel.
• At the end of the afternoon of the same day, with little fuel and almost no food and water left and no sight of land, the migrants called Father Moses Zerai, an Eritrean priest based in Rome, by satellite phone to ask for help. Zerai informed of the situation Rome MRCC, which after obtaining the GPS location of the boat at 5:52pm, informed their Maltese counterparts, NATO's Naples Maritime HQ and sent out a distress signal to all ships in the area.
• Two to three hours after having placed the call and while the migrants' vessel continued sailing in the direction of Lampedusa, it was flown over by a military helicopter, which bore the writing "ARMY" or "RESCUE ARMY" on its side. Despite the migrants' clearly identifiable gestures for help - waving, holding the babies on board at arms length, showing the empty tanks of petrol - the helicopter hovered over the boat but left without providing any immediate assistance. The migrants now believed they would soon be saved, and the "captain" therefore threw overboard the satellite phone, which had failing batteries and could have been used as evidence of his involvement in a smuggling network. The last GPS position registered by the satellite provider at 8:08pm corresponds in all likelihood to the location of the first helicopter encounter.
• After 4-5 hours of waiting, floating in approximately the same position and with no sign of rescue, the migrants decided to ask for help from some fishermen, whose boats they noticed around them. They attempted to reach those boats but the fishermen too left without providing any assistance. Shortly afterwards, and still in approximately the same position, the same helicopter came back. This time, military personnel on-board threw down 8 bottles of water and a few packets of biscuits before leaving again.
• Following this second helicopter visit, the migrants were shown the direction of Lampedusa by yet another fishing vessel. Between 1 and 2am on 28 March 2011, they resumed movement in this direction for 5-8 hours until they ran out of fuel in the early morning (fig. 2D). From this moment, until they landed back on the Libyan coast, their boat drifted on the open sea without any use of its motor.
• After several days of drifting, between the 3rd and 4th of April, the migrants encountered a military ship with one or two helicopters on its deck. The migrants got as close as 10 metres to this ship in their plea for help. The crew on the deck of the military ship did not provide assistance and only took photos before departing.
• The migrants' vessel continued to drift until it eventually landed back on the coast of Libya, near Zlitan, on 10 April. In total, the boat drifted for 14 days. Of the 72 people who departed from Tripoli only 11 survived. One woman died shortly after arriving ashore, while the others were caught and imprisoned by Libyan soldiers. During the imprisonment another person died. In total nine people survived the journey and 63 perished.