TOKYO-2017 Editorial / General News

Naval battle

  • Prize
    Gold in Editorial/General News
  • Photographer
    Alessio Paduano

On November 6, 2017 a deadly shipwreck led the German NGO Sea-Watch and Libyan coast guard to blame one another for a botched rescue into Mediterranean Sea. Germans said their ship was helping migrants on the sinking inflatable boat in international waters off Libya on Monday morning when a Libyan coast guard boat began to simultaneously take migrants onboard causing panic by beating and threatening the passengers, before driving off at high speed with people clinging to the side. Libyans blamed Sea-Watch for the deaths—five, including a child—and said they interrupted the coast guard's rescue work despite their appeals. Fifty-eight migrants were rescued by Sea-Watch.