Migrants ‘feared for their lives’ as Libyan gunmen fired on rescue ship

Yasmin Ibrahim Elzanaty, a lawyer from Egypt, was working as a cultural mediator on a rescue ship a week ago, when shots were fired “right next to me” as the vessel sailed in international waters off Libya. Everyone on board was “terrified”, she told Al Jazeera. “They were shaking … They had only just come out of a s***** situation in Libya. It was really, really bad.” Recommended Stories list of 4 items end of list The shots were fired by armed men on a Libyan coastguard patrol boat in waters north of the North African country’s coast at 11am on May 11. “First, a single shot was fired, followed by a burst of approximately 10 to 15 further shots – without any warning,” according to Sea-Watch, which said the crew and rescued survivors “feared for their lives”. The crew on board said the coastguard then attempted to seize the German-flagged rescue vessel and force it towards Libya. “Nobody expects to rescue people and then get shot at. I could see the boat extremely close; it was too close,” said Elzanaty. Thirty crew members from countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Egypt were on board, as well as 90 people rescued from a boat in distress, which had departed Libya in the early hours that morning. As she was the only Arabic speaker on board, Elzanaty negotiated with the attackers. “Even when we were talking, it wasn’t in a decent way,” she said. “There was no warning. …