Skip to main content
EU border charade puts immigrant lives in danger
Why did Frontex help an NGO ship rescue refugees in the Mediterranean, asks BEN COWLES
Photo of the incident supplied by Frontex

THOUGH the European border agency tells the Star it is NOT its policy to ignore charity ships, MSF humanitarian affairs adviser Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui finds a number of contradictions to this claim.

THE Osprey 3, a reconnaissance plane chartered by Frontex, the European Border and Coastguard Agency, alerted an NGO refugee rescue ship to a rubber boat in distress carrying 118 people in international waters off the coast of Libya on November 11.

Almost all of the activists involved in the NGO refugee rescue missions that I have spoken to this year and last have told me that Frontex’s planes do not alert them to refugee distress cases in the central Mediterranean.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
The crowd at Manchester Punk Festival 2024
Culture / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
SETTING AN EXAMPLE: Watford’s and Norwich City players tak
Features / 13 March 2025
13 March 2025
Ben Cowles previews his interview with Stand Up to Racism’s SABBY DHALU for the Morning Star’s new Youtube channel
Similar stories
Cyprus' interior minister Konstantinos Ioannou (second right
World / 17 May 2024
17 May 2024
EU states call for Syria to be reclassified as a safe country