NATO warship aids stricken boat during Libya op

ROME—A warship taking part in a NATO-enforced naval embargo on Libya came to the rescue of an overcrowded boat with its engine cut off in the Mediterranean on Friday, a NATO spokesman said.

"A NATO vessel received an SOS signal and responded to a vessel that is dead in the water with no functioning engine and is overcrowded," said David Taylor, speaking from the operation's command headquarters in Naples.

He told AFP later Friday that the NATO ship "carried out two medical inspections on the ship to make sure that there was no emergency" as well as "a technical inspection and repairs to the boat".

It also "offered them the necessary items, food, water".

Italy's Habeshia refugee help group late Friday accused the NATO vessel which was flying the Canadian flag of having "abandoned" the boat.

ANSA news agency quoted Habeshia chief Don Mose Zerai as saying that the NATO ship commander offered to take the migrants to Tunisia but that his ship left when they turned down his offer.

Asked to confirm the report the NATO spokesman denied this.

"The ship has not been abandoned," he said. "There was no medical emergency, there was food, and they were able to navigate."

He added: "We are following the situation".

Habeshia said there were about 350 Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somalis and several Bangladeshis on the boat.

The NATO spokesman put the figure at about 150 but did not give details.

The United Nations has warned that the crisis in Libya could displace up to 250,000 refugees and migrants, and boatloads with thousands of mostly Tunisian migrants have been arriving on Italian shores in recent weeks.

Boats carrying migrants are mostly ageing and overcrowded and their captains often cut off the engine when coast guards arrive so as not to be identified.

Many of the boats arriving recently have carried around 100 people each.

ANSA news agency on Thursday reported that a boat that left Libya carrying 330 Eritrean migrants had gone missing and on Friday it said that a Canadian warship was monitoring another boat that left Libya overnight.

Since mid-February more than 15,000 clandestine migrants have arrived in Italy. Italian ports were put on maximum alert, the head of the country's coast guard said earlier Friday. (report from Agence France-Presse)