Guardia Costiera plane involved in rescues of 2,000 migrants

The Italian Coast Guard (Guardia Costiera) rescued a total of around 2,000 migrants on 14 and 15 February from boats off the coast of Libya. The migrants were intercepted by Guardia Costiera surface vessels as they were en route to Italy, which is separated from Libya by only a narrow section of the Mediterranean Sea. A number of Guardia Costiera assets took part in the rescue missions, including an ATR 42 plane, along with a navy ship and civilian tugboats.

According to reports, as migrants were transferred to one Guardia Costiera vessel on 15 February, a speedboat carrying four men wielding Kalashnikov rifle threatened the unarmed rescuers before seizing the migrants’ boat. Maurizio Lupi, Italy’s transport minister, said that this represented ‘another terrible development in the horrendous trafficking of men, women and children in the Mediterranean’. On the same day, Italy closed its embassy in Libya, repeating its call for a United Nations mission to help end the conflict in the country, which has become increasingly unstable since the civil war began that led to the defeat of the Gaddafi regime.