Karl Stagno-Navarra
Amateur footage taken from a mobile phone on Libya’s Al Zuwarah beach – uploaded onto the website of Italian newspaper La Repubblica – reveals the panic that has gripped migrants and human traffickers at the prospect of imminent joint Libya-Italy patrols.
The film opens with bathers enjoying the sun and sand, when a group of around 40 Africans, including women and children, run to the sea and jump onto a dinghy that was just thrown into the sea and held steady by the presumed skipper.
Crammed side by side, they seek space for their feet among jerry-cans laden with extra fuel, and once all inside, they speed off into the horizon.
A few minutes after, another group of Africans is seen arriving on the beach, while another dinghy is pushed out.
However, while some alight and others are still approaching, a military jeep arrives and speeds through the bathers, with four soldiers shouting at the would-be migrants.
While they run out of the jeep, one officer fires shots, some aimed at the dinghy at point-blank range in a bid to perforate it.
Screams, running, shouting characterise the footage. Some manage to escape, others are not so lucky and could be seen being arrested.
The migration frenzy from Libya is happening in broad daylight, and the rate of departure is set to esacalate before Libya takes delivery of Italian patrol boats to patrol their coasts later this month.
According to reports, the migrant situation in Libya is critical as human traffickers are taking all they can get in cash, goods and in kind from Africans, who are now believing the word that migration to Europe will soon be over.
Hundreds of Nigerians, Sudanese, Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis have been sighted by foreign journalists massed inside large warehouses, waiting their turn to be put on boats and flee to Europe.
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