Libya refuses to evacuate three weeks old lifeless body in international waters near LSR zone

Libya has refused to evacuate a three weeks old lifeless body in international waters within the Libyan search and rescue (SAR) zone despite repeated requests by a rescue group operating in the Mediterranean.

A photo taken on June 29 by Seabird, a monitoring aircraft operated by the search-and-rescue group Sea-Watch, shows the body facing down in the Mediterranean's rough waters, entangled in a half-sunk grey dinghy.

Sea-Watch said it alerted authorities in Libya, Italy and Malta and sent three more requests since.

It added that repeated calls for authorities to clarify how the rubber boat was damaged and the whereabouts of any other passengers on board were not answered.

While each state has the responsibility to conduct search and rescue operations within a defined zone, the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue stipulates they have the obligation to intervene in the zone of another state if it fails to respond to a help request from that area.

"When then the bodies are not retrieved and identified, and their relatives are not informed about their death so that they can mourn, and when these dead are not laid to rest, it shows the last bit of dignity that the EU had has drowned with these people," said Neeske Beckmann, pilot and coordinator of Seabird's operations.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 400 people have died in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe from Africa's shores this year - a dangerous sea journey that has killed at least 20,000 since 2014.

"The thought that this has been normalised or sometimes ignored is horrifying," Federico Soda, head of the IOM's mission in Libya, told Al Jazeera. "We need to remember that these are people, who have parents, siblings and loved ones."

(Al Jazeera)