The EU will ask Libya for explanations for the coast guard incident with the rescue ship ‘Ocean Viking’

BRUSSELS, March 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The European Union has assured this Monday that it will ask Libya for explanations for the incident registered this weekend between the Libyan coast guard and the rescue ship ‘Ocean Viking’, of the humanitarian organization SOS Méditerranée, after the NGO denounced that they were threatened with firearms to prevent the rescue of 80 people in international waters.

At a press conference from Brussels, the community spokesman for Foreign Affairs Peter Stano has indicated, without going into an in-depth discussion of this case, that European diplomacy will request “explanations and clarifications” from the Libyan authorities. Neither has he detailed whether the ship from which the shots were fired into the air has European funding.

“Of course we will seek explanations and clarifications of what happened, why it happened and what measures will be taken now,” Stano said, stressing that it is “premature” to talk about a European reaction before knowing all the details of the incident and stressing that the The EU does not finance any Libyan institution but rather helps to improve maritime search and rescue capabilities.

The EU adapts its relationship with its partners to the reality on the ground, argued the spokesperson, who in the case of the situation in the Mediterranean Sea has defended that “security, saving lives and the rights of migrants come first” .

According to the humanitarian organization, last Saturday the patrol boat 656 of the Libyan Coast Guard “dangerously” approached the ‘Ocean Viking’, without answering the communication attempts and while the coast guard crew acted “aggressively”, “threatening with firearms and firing several shots into the air”.

All in a context of rescue in international waters of some 80 people who were in danger and that, according to the NGO’s version, the Libyan forces “brutally” intercepted.