RTL: With wide-open, shocked eyes Josefa looks at her savior. The images released by the “Proactiva Open Arms” refugee rescuers went around the world – along with grave allegations to the Libyan Coast Guard : they allegedly left the woman on a dinghy with one child and another woman before she left the boat destroyed. Josefa is the only survivor, she supports with their statements these allegations.
On Saturday she will arrive with the rescue ship “Astral” of a Spanish relief organisation on the Balearic island of Mallorca.
Italy’s right-wing government had previously assigned a port to the “Proactiva Open Arms” to land – but only offered to take care of the survivors, not the dead, fleeing across the Mediterranean. As a result, Proactiva decided to go to Spain.
Because the trip to Mallorca is much shorter than the one to the mainland, the government of the Balearic Islands offered their support, reported the “Inselradio Mallorca” on Thursday. Balearic Prime Minister Francina Armengol announced on Twitter help and solidarity for the survivors from Cameroon and the helpers: “There must be neither indifference nor may we look in the other direction Let’s act now!”, wrote the politician.
Josefa did not remember where she had left off and did not know where her traveling companions were, the woman from Cameroon explained to her rescuers. She left the country because her husband beat her because she could not have children. “Two days and two nights” she was traveling in the Mediterranean. Then the serious allegations against the Coast Guard, which fits the criticism of the refugee rescuers: “Some Libyan police have arrived and they have started to beat us,” says Josefa according to her rescuers.
The Libyan Coast Guard refused to participate in the rescue operation criticised by the Proactiva Open Arms. The Coast Guard has therefore rescued two other dinghies of the highest caliber in the Mediterranean. RTL reporter Nadja Kriewald was aboard a ship of the Libyan Coast Guard. As she experienced the dramatic rescue operation on the side of the Marines, you see in the video.
“We reached a dinghy, and the people on board had been on the road for three days, simply counting on them being supplied with water,” explains Nadja Kriewald. “Likely they would not have survived much longer – 165 people were rescued altogether.”
In her estimation, the Libyan forces on the ship “Ras Sjdeir”, on which she was, have given everything to save as many refugees as possible.
