Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reports that not all people aboard the ship Aquarius are impoverished and traveling aboard rickety boats. Some are well-off and from the middle class, journeying on less dangerous boats to escape the chaos in Tripoli, MSF said.
No longer are only the most desperate people risking their lives to flee the shores of North Africa in search of a better life in Europe. Among migrants leaving Libya, some are from middle-class, well-off homes, fleeing the country out of fear.
In a recent case on the Aquarius, 58 such migrants said they escaped from Libya because they didn't feel safe. They chose to leave on less-dangerous boats (that are also more costly), bringing with them luggage and in one case, even the family dog.
At the same time, there is the unfortunate story of Hayat, the 20-year-old Moroccan woman from Tetouan who was studying law and was killed on Wednesday when the Moroccan navy shot at the migrant boat she was traveling on. Officials said shots were fired after the boat ignored the navy's commands for it to stop.
MSF says migrants fleeing crisis in Tripoli
MSF's project coordinator onboard the Aquarius, Aloys Vimard, confirmed this trend in an interview with French daily Le Monde. Vimard is now coordinating the last migrant rescue vessel currently operating in the Central Mediterranean. He said these families don't particularly want to leave their country, but with the escalation of clashes in Tripoli, they have decided to take to the sea.
"Seeing so many children, luggage, and even a dog, it really hit me," Vimard said. He is more used to seeing people in desperation, perhaps fleeing the Middle East or Sub-Saharan Africa, after having been through the inferno of Libyan detention centres. This time, however, the passengers were of an entirely different type.
Malak's story
Among the 58 migrants rescued by the Aquarius, 37 were aboard a wooden boat that was safer (and more costly) compared to the human traffickers' rubber dinghies. One of them was Malak, a 44-year-old mother of five from Libya, accompanied by her brother and their dog, Bella. She said she fled after her husband was abducted a month ago in Tripoli. She told Le Monde her husband works in the food business and "has money". She had to pay the equivalent of 5,000 to 6,000 euros to board the wooden boat last Sunday.
Another 40-year old Libyan woman, Ibissem, who left with her husband and two children, explained that they couldn't travel "in a totally haphazard way". She is a pattern maker for an Italian swimsuit and lingerie company, and said she left everything after her son was abducted, and then released in exchange for a large ransom payment. "In Libya, we're dead people who breathe. We had to leave; there was no other option," she said. The UN said 5,000 people have left their homes in Tripoli since the start of fighting at the end of August.