V_SAR Op 14.03.20 B

13-14 March 2020

Case “internal pictures” FEZZAN

The CASE “internal pictures” FEZZAN 13-14 March 2020 is an illegal pushback performed probably after an interception by a European aircraft of mission Sophia that, on that day, participated in operation Themis of the Italian Government and Frontex.

Operation Themis has filed and numbered the case, which is found in its databases complete with all the data, including the coordinates of the sighting and capture of the rubber boat.

The vessel of the pushback victims was a light-coloured dinghy (white-grey) carrying around 75 people that sailed from Garabulli in the evening of Thursday, 12 March 2020.

The dinghy was seized on Friday, 13 March 2020 at 14:26 UTC (16:26 CAT) by patrol boat Fezzan 658. We are sure of the time because the migrants on the vessel provided us the pictures they took. The title of said pictures contains the date and time when they were taken.

We have found 4 pushback victims – 3 of them in Libya and one in the UK – who are clearly visible in the pictures. There is a separate file about them.

Patrol boat Fezzan 658 seized 4 vessels, carrying 301 people in total, the light-coloured dinghy of our clients was the third vessel seized by Fezzan. The light-colored rubber dinghy carrying our clients was the third vessel seized by the Fezzan. All four pushbacks were carried out as part of joint Operation Themis, and all four boats (four rubber dinghies) appear to have been detected by the EUNAVFOR Med Seagull aircraft – Operation Sophia.

The disembarking happened in Tripoli on 14 March.

Libyan authorities named the case SAR OP 14/03/2020 and not 13/03, probably because the fourth vessel was seized after midnight, or because the disembarking in Tripoli happened on 14 March.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are 2 cases in the same days, amounting to 6 seized vessels:

• CASE FEZZAN “internal pictures”: 301 people intercepted, travelling on 4 vessels (at least 3 were light-coloured dinghies) – internal pictures case – this one.
• CASE RAS EL JADIR: 105 people travelling on 2 vessels (one was a wooden boat with 49 people and the other was a dinghy) – case Ej Hadi (already on JLProject database)

THE EUROPEAN INVOLVEMENT

The case occurred under Operation Themis. Joint Operation Themis is a “synergy between the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and the Italian Authorities with the support of the Member States of the European Union’, as can be read on the website of the Italian Ministry of Defense (https://www.difesa.it/operazionimilitari/op-intern-corso/jointoperationtriton/index.html). Libya is NOT a partner.

The case is present on the database of operation Themis.

Themis records all 6 seizures (4 vessels seized by Fezzan and 2 by Ras El Jadir):

The first 4 cases are clearly the Fezzan ones and the last two are the Ras El Jadir ones.

We do not know which one of the 4 Themis operations performed by Fezzan is our case, but we assume it is n. 99319 because it was the third seized vessel.

All 4 operations indicate the following details:

OperationName:              Themis 2020

ReportingCountry:           Italy

DetectionInitiatedBy       Other  (Nota: quel “Other” è EUNAVFORMED)

Disembarkation :         Tripoli

JLProject has an excel file with all the Themis information, including coordinates.

Operation Themis coordinated six pushbacks from the sea to Libya on March 13, 2020, and deployed several spy planes which, patrolling international waters, located the rubber dinghy carrying our rejected migrants. The Sophia mission (which deployed two aircraft) and the Maltese Armed Forces (with one aircraft and one helicopter) collaborated on this aerial sighting. We have traces of six aircraft (four aircraft and two helicopters) that flew over the Libyan SAR on March 13.

EUNAVFOR Med – Operation Sophia (later Irini), officially known as the European Union Naval Force in the South Central Mediterranean (in Italian: European Union Naval Force in the Central Mediterranean), was the first military maritime security operation launched by the European Union, operating in the Central Mediterranean. It ended in March 2020 and was replaced by EUNAVFOR Med – Operation Irini.

We believe that our dinghy was spotted at 07:22 UTC by the plane SW3 Merlin III “Seagull” of operation Sophia with ICAO code ACB856, which was persistently flying over the zone in front of Garabulli (departure location of the dinghy, as indicated by the red circle).

By cross-referencing the Seagull route with the sighting coordinates recorded by Operation Themis, the dynamics of the sightings of the 4 rubber dinghies can be clearly understood:

PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIAL
The “external pictures”

The case was shared by Libyan authorities with a series of tweets. The first one is posted by the account Rgowans on 14 March 2020, a few hours after the disembarking. Link https://x.com/rgowans/status/1238884587851468801?s=20

We do not know if the picture is original or a stock photo. Either way, it displays a dark grey dinghy and does NOT show the vessel of this appeal, which is a light-coloured dinghy. Libyan authorities named the case SAR OP 14/03/2020 and not 13/03, probably because the fourth vessel was captured after midnight.

The second tweet – posted on 15 March – definitely includes original pictures that show the vessels captured on 13 March 2020. Link https://x.com/rgowans/status/1239133301761355776?s=20

The second picture is relevant to our case because it shows the people that we have found. It is this one:

The “internal pictures”

Regarding this case, we have several “internal sources”, that is pictures taken by the rejected people with their cell phones. They took the pictures while on the dinghy during the capture and the next morning, when they were on the Libyan patrol boat.

These pictures are a precise and revealing gallery that clearly shows how the rejected people were deceived: they thought they were being saved by Maltese authorities and travelling towards Malta, not towards Libya. This is the reason why in some pictures they look happy.

When they arrived at the port in Tripoli, the pictures were uploaded by one of the pushback victims on his Google account. Afterwards, Libyan authorities took the cell phone. While uploading the pictures from the cell phone to the Google account, they lost their metadata but kept the title. Modern smartphones title the pictures with date and time. Therefore, a picture has the following type of title: yearmonthday_hoursminutesseconds.

Thanks to this, we were able to determine the exact moment of the capture at sea (at 16:26 CAT on 13 March 2020) and of the moments previous to the disembarking in Tripoli in the early morning of 14 March 2020.

The following picture is a screenshot of the victim’s Google account:

We also confirmed that the situations and the people shown in the “internal pictures” are consistent with those in the “external pictures” posted by the Libyan authorities: the people in the pictures are the same. There are dozens of matches. Here we included just a few examples, but we are available – if needed – to provide a detailed study that connects all the internal pictures to the external ones:

Le foto interne di cui abbiamo data e ora We have 5 internal pictures that have a date and time:5:

FI.A) 20200313_162634

FI.B) 20200314_074054

FI.C) 20200314_074249

FI.D) 20200314_074333

FI.E) 20200314_074749

We also have other pictures, but we haven’t been able to retrieve a date and time yet.

Internal picture 1: the witnesses state that it was taken when the Maltese helicopter arrived, which lowered towards them and closely flew over them.

Internal picture 2: taken at sea.

Internal pictures 3 and 6: taken at the moment of the seizure, with a few seconds difference from internal picture FI.A 20200313_162634.

Internal picture 7: taken on the Libyan patrol boat, when some of them still believed that they were being taken to Malta.

Timeline

Thursday, 12 March 2020

• 19 UTC (21 CAT) a light-coloured dinghy sets sail from
  Garabulli. 75 people on board. From Sudan and Somalia. Around 6 women from Somalia and 3 children.

Friday, 13 March 2020

05:15 UTC the plane SW3 Merlin III “Seagull” dell’operazione Sophia con codice icao ACB856 turns on the transponder. It comes from the north and appears at coordinates 34,302°,15,214°. It flies south until it enters Libyan national waters (see the light blue air route) (Source: flight tracking data). In that moment, at 05:49 UTC, it turns off the transponder. https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=acb856&lat=33.219&lon=14.514&zoom=8.9&showTrace=2020-03-13&trackLabels)

• 05:20 UTC (07:20 CAT): SUNRISE.
• 05:31 UTC: Frontex plane Osprey 3 with ICAO code 40785b takes off from Malta. It patrols the Maltese SAR for hours along the Zawiya-Malta route. At 07:00, while it flies south, it turns off the transponder (it will be turned back on at 11:54). (Source: flight paths https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=40785b&lat=35.235&lon=14.419&zoom=9.6&showTrace=2020-03-13&leg=1&trackLabels )

From 07:20 to 08:45 UTC the plane SW3 Merlin III “Seagull” of operation Sophia with ICAO code ACB856 persistently flies over the area with coordinates 33.280, 14.147. It is exactly in front of Garabulli (departure location of the dinghy, indicated by the red circle).

We think this is the moment of the SIGHTING of the 4 rubber boats.

Journalist Sergio Scandura has also tracked the plane Seagull, obtaining a screenshot of its route that is even more precise. Link: https://x.com/scandura/status/1238586252804403201?s=20

• 8 UTC (10 CAT) approximately: the migrants remember a plane flying over their vessel. It could be Seagull (Source: testimony of the rejected people).
• 11:26 UTC: the plane B200 AS1127 of the Maltese Armed Forces (ICAO code AS1127) takes off from Malta but turns off the transponder only three minutes later (Source: flight tracking data https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=4d20c3&lat=35.326&lon=14.444&zoom=8.8&showTrace=2020-03-13&trackLabels ).
  We know that it flies to the Libyan SAR because of a tweet by Sergio Scandura (link: https://x.com/scandura/status/1239526499046305793?s=20)

11:26 UTC: at the same time, Maltese military helicopter Agusta Westland AW139 AS1428 with ICAO code 4D20C3 also takes off from Malta. This aircraft turns off the transponder a few minutes later as well (at 11:30 UTC), but its route is clear: south. (Source: flight tracking data:
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=4d20c3&lat=35.760&lon=14.344&zoom=11.2&showTrace=2020-03-13&trackLabels)

11:54 UTC: Frontex plane Osprey 3 turns the transponder back on. It is going back to Malta.

• 12 UTC (14 CAT) approximately: the migrants spot another plane. We do not know which one it is, but it is not very important.

• – 12:28 UTC: the plane Falcon 50 c/s FNY5018 NAS (Franch Navy, mission Sophia) with ICAO code FNY5018 is in the Libyan SAR area. We do not have air paths but it was tracked by Sergio Scandura at the following link https://x.com/scandura/status/1239529324816093184?s=20

Between 12:21 and 13:34 UTC: Maltese military helicopter Agusta Westland AW139 AS1428 with ICAO code 4D20C3 persistently flies over an area on the Garabulli – Malta route. Unfortunately, the route of the helicopter cannot be tracked by our flight trackers, and we have only the screenshots posted by Scandura at the following link https://x.com/scandura/status/1239509737177255936?s=20

By superimposing the helicopter’s route on the coordinates recorded by Operation Themis, it can be assumed that the Maltese military helicopter Agusta Westland AW139 AS1428 flew over the rubber dinghies at the time of their capture. However, it was not responsible for the sightings.

Zoom:

12-13 UTC approximately: the migrants spot a helicopter of the Maltese army. As they are happy to see Maltese people and thinking they are almost safe, the migrants take some pictures with their cell phones, which remained turned off until that moment to save battery. One of them is the following:

IN THE MEANTIME, patrol boat Fezzan 658 captures people coming from 2 other vessels. According to the pictures that the
Libyan authorities post at the following link https://twitter.com/rgowans/status/1239133301761355776?s=20, we know that it is a white dinghy.

Note: this white dinghy is NOT the vessel of our rejected people, but one of the other 3 vessels captured by patrol boat Fezzan.

14:26 UTC (16:26 CAT) approximately: capture. The migrants see the patrol boat Fezzan 658 approaching them. They initially think they are Maltese and coming to rescue them. They take other pictures. We have a picture that still has the date and time of when it was took in the title:

13 March 2020 at 16:26 and 34 seconds (CAT time).

The picture, taken by the migrants, also shows patrol boat Fezzan 658.

We also have 4 other pictures taken a few seconds apart:

Libyan authorities approach the dinghy of our pushback victims and force the migrants to get on patrol boat Fezzan 658.

Picture posted by the Libyan authorities at the following link https://twitter.com/rgowans/status/1239133301761355776?s=20

At 15:30 UTC Osprey 3 goes back to the Libyan SAR.

• 17:12 UTC (19:12 CAT): sunset.
• AFTER THAT patrol boat Fezzan 658 is guided towards a fourth vessel. It takes a long time to find it. The sea is rough, it is cold and dark.
• DURING THE NIGHT: In the end, Fezzan captures also the people on the fourth boat. We believe that the following picture, posted by Rgowans at the link https://x.com/rgowans/status/1239133301761355776?s=20, depicts the moment the fourth vessel was seized.

• The patrol boat Fezzan 658 now has 301 people on board. It got very far away from the Libyan coastline. It takes the whole night to go back to Tripoli.

Saturday, 14 March 2020

• 05:19 UTC (07:19 CAT) SUNRISE.
• From 05:40 to 05:47 UTC (07:40-7:47) the refugees are still on patrol boat Fezzan and take pictures:

• 6 UTC (8 CAT) approximately: arrival of patrol boat Fezzan 658 at the Tripoli port and disembarking (source: rejected people).
• AFTER THAT: the Libyan authorities transfer the rejected people to the Ain Zara prison, but some of them are set free.

“Most of them were taken to detention, while some managed to escape the disembarkation point” states IOM here https://x.com/IOM_Libya/status/1238903530439745536?s=20. However, the rejected people tell us that, once they arrived in Ain Zara prison, it was the Libyan authorities who set some of them free because they were concerned some of them had Covid. It was at the beginning of the pandemic and even the Libyan jailers were afraid of contamination.

• At 17:47 UTC (18:47 CET) Rgowans shares the first post regarding the push–back. We do not know if the picture used is a stock photo or not, but we know it is not the vessel of our rejected people.

🔴 [BREAKING] #SAR Op 14.03.20 – Libyan Coast Guard ships "Fezzan" and "Ras Jadar" rescued in 5 separate operations ca. 350 #migrants! UPDATE FOLLOWS #migrantcrisis #frontex #seenotrettung #united4rescue pic.twitter.com/RaOYnrmKFh

— Migrant Rescue Watch (@rgowans) March 14, 2020

• At 18:03 UTC (20:03 CAT) IOM writes that 301 people were disembarked. It writes “this evening” but, as for what we know (migrants’ testimonies), they were disembarked in the morning. Therefore, IOM is wrong.

Sunday, 15 March 2020:

• 05:18 UTC (07:18 CAT) Sunrise.
• 10:16 UTC (11:16 CET): Rgowans posts an update with original pictures. https://x.com/rgowans/status/1239133301761355776?s=20

• At 11:12 UTC (12:12 CAT) UNHCR writes a tweet regarding the disembarkations:
  1) “today” about the case RAS EL JADIR (incorrectly writes 140 people but then changes it to 105 https://x.com/UNHCRLibya/status/1239534748017573889?s=20)
  2) “Yesterday” about the case FEZZAN 301 people.
  
   

🚨Happening now:
140 persons intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard & returned to Libya 🇱🇾 are being provided with relief items & medical assistance by UNHCR’s partner IRC.
301 other refugees & migrants were also provided with assistance yesterday after being returned to Tripoli.

— UNHCR Libya (@UNHCRLibya) March 15, 2020

Monday, 16 March

At 17:14 UTC (18:14 CET) Rgowans writes a tweet regarding the 2 captures carried out by Ras El Jadir (parallel case – 105 people), stating that “All rescued disembarked in early morning hours of Sunday @ Tripoli NB.” Source: https://twitter.com/rgowans/status/1239601043085934592?s=20

(it is probably a stock photo).