An EU-funded Libyan so-called coastguard patrol boat opened fire on a rescue vessel in international waters, then attempted to force the vessel back to Libya. But instead of responding to their desperate requests for help, Italian authorities subsequently opened a criminal case against the rescue vessel’s captain after the ship docked in Italy.

“Nobody expects to rescue people and then get shot at…”

The vessel, Sea-Watch 5, had just pulled 90 people from a boat in distress that had left Libya earlier that morning. Without warning, an armed coastguard patrol boat fired a burst of around 10 to 15 rounds. Cultural mediator Yasmin Ibrahim Elzanaty was on deck when the shots rang out. She told Al Jazeera:

Nobody expects to rescue people and then get shot at. I could see the boat extremely close; it was too close,

As the only Arabic speaker on board, she negotiated with the attackers. She continued:

Even when we were talking, it wasn’t in a decent way, …There was no warning. The shots were fired first, and then we started talking.

The people they had rescued watched on in terror.

“They had just been pulled out of danger … We gave them hope that they were safe and then 30 minutes later, it was absolute chaos.”, Elzanaty recalls.

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