Month: July 2021

MARSEILLE, FRANCE – The Ocean Viking on Saturday rescued 196 migrants off Libya, the humanitarian ship’s operator said.

It first picked up 57 people in an inflatable dinghy struggling in international waters off the North African country, SOS Mediterranee said.

In the afternoon, the ship’s crew carried out two additional rescues in the same area, plucking 54 people from a dinghy and 64 others from a wooden vessel.

In their latest operation, they saved 21 people from a wooden vessel.

The total rescued included at least two pregnant women and 33 minors, 22 of them unaccompanied.

According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 1,146 people died at sea trying to reach Europe during the first half of 2021.

SOS Mediterranee says it has rescued more than 30,000 people since February 2016, first with the ship Aquarius, then with Ocean Viking.

SOS Mediterranee accuses European Union governments of neglecting coordinated search-and-rescue action to discourage migrants from attempting the crossing from war-torn Libya, where they are often victims of organized crime and militia violence.

Libyan authorities are also accused of forcibly returning intercepted ships to Libya, even when they are in European waters.

A U.N. Human Rights Office report in late May urged Libya and the EU to overhaul their rescue operations, saying existing policies “fail to prioritize the lives, safety and human rights” of people attempting to cross from Africa.

Source: Voice of America

TUNIS, TUNISIA – Tunisia’s President Kais Saied spoke Saturday with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who conveyed U.S. President Joe Biden’s strong support for the people of Tunisia and for Tunisian democracy, National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a White House press release.

The two spoke for an hour and “focused on the critical need for Tunisian leaders to outline a swift return to Tunisia’s democratic path,” the press release said. Sullivan underscored that this will require “rapidly forming a new government, led by a capable prime minister to stabilize Tunisia’s economy and confront the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as ensuring the timely return of the elected parliament.

“As Tunisia’s leaders answer the widely expressed demands of Tunisians for improved standards of living and honest governance, the United States and other friends of the Tunisian people stand ready to redouble our efforts to help Tunisia move toward a secure, prosperous, and democratic future,” the statement concluded.

On Friday, Tunisian authorities jailed an opposition lawmaker and briefly detained four members of the powerful Islamist movement Ennahdha in the wake of the president’s decision to seize exceptional powers, according to Tunisian media reports.

The Ennahdha members were brought before investigating magistrates and accused of trying to incite violence outside the parliament building after Saied’s announcement Sunday, according to party official Riadh Chaidi.

The four were questioned but later released for lack of proof of violence, Chaidi told The Associated Press.

The president suspended parliament, lifted the immunity of parliament members, fired the prime minister and took control of the executive branch. He said the move was necessary to save the country amid public anger at the government over joblessness, rising prices and one of Africa’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.

But Saied’s decision raised concerns about Tunisia’s young democracy. Critics — most notably Ennahdha — accused him of a coup. Ennahdha has been a major player in Tunisian legislative elections since the country’s 2011 revolution, which unleashed the Arab Spring uprisings across the region.

The next day, Ennahdha supporters skirmished with backers of the president outside parliament, but the crowd was eventually dispersed by police.

Among those detained Friday were the bodyguard of Ennahdha leader and parliament speaker Rachid Ghannouchi, his protocol officer and a member of the party’s advisory council.

The four were accused of inciting people from a working-class neighborhood close to parliament to bring sticks to carry out acts of violence during the rally, according to the official TAP news agency.

“There was no link with violence,” said Chaidi, a member of the party’s executive bureau. “Violence is not a choice of Ennahdha.”

He sought to minimize the detentions and played down concerns that they were a sign of a government crackdown singling out his party.

Also Friday, outspoken legislator Yassine Ayari was arrested outside his home, according to a Facebook post by his party, the Hope and Action Movement.

His lawyer Mokhtar Jemai said Ayari was apparently arrested in connection with a June 30 court conviction but was not informed of the reason for conviction. Ayari has spoken out against the military and the government and faced legal problems in the past, but no longer enjoys parliamentary immunity because of the president’s decisions.

On Thursday, the president named a new interior minister, his first major appointment since the shakeup. Ridha Gharsallaoui, a former national security adviser to the presidency, will now head the Interior Ministry, which oversees domestic security, including policing.

Source: Voice of America