MEPs called to uncover truth behind ‘left-to-die-boat’ tragedy in 2011

Dutch MP Tineke Strik, who led an inquiry into the death of 63 migrants aboard the 'left-to-die-boat' ignored by Nato vessels in the Mediterranean during the Libyan conflict, has called on members of the European Parliament to help uncover further details related to the deaths of the boat migrants after their distress calls went unanswered.

Briefing the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee yesterday in Brussels on her continuing investigation into the tragedy, Strik said she is now seeking further information from Nato, the EU and individual European countries to help find out exactly what happened and how such disasters can be prevented in the future.

Senator Strik urged MEPs to request information from different EU bodies - including the Joint Research Centre and the European Fisheries Control Agency - which may be able to help identify which boats were in the area.

She also called on the parliamentarians - notably those from the United Kingdom, France and Spain - to put pressure on their own defence ministries to provide any more relevant information. Follow-up letters containing additional questions have been sent to Nato and the Spanish and British defence ministers, she pointed out.

Strik called for a new EU "Protocol on the Mediterranean" to cover issues including the rescue, repatriation and resettlement of migrants and refugees. She also urged the EU to develop a common position to help strengthen existing international rules of the sea.

An independent forensic analysis into the death of the migrants had concluded the refugees 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 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.