Armed men in speedboats make off with women and children when a migrants’ dinghy deflates off Libya

MILAN (AP) - Armed men in two speedboats took off with women and children after a rubber dinghy carrying some 112 migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean Sea started deflating off Libya’s coast, a humanitarian aid group said Friday.

Dozens of men and boys who were aboard the overcrowded dinghy jumped into the sea, Doctors Without Borders said. The group's boat, Geo Barents, arrived at the scene in international waters on Thursday, rescuing 83 men and unaccompanied minors, plucking 70 of them from the sea.

Two speedboats, which identified themselves as belonging to the Libyan Coast Guard, were nearby. The migrants later said some of the men had fired shots. No fatalities were reported.

One speedboat had taken on board 24 women and four children, telling the Geo Barents that they would hand them over once the men had been rescued, Doctors Without Borders spokesman Maurizio Debbane said.

But instead, they sped away. It was not immediately clear who the armed men were and what had happened to the women and children.

The rescued migrants were from Eritrea, Yemen and Ethiopia.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, appealed to authorities and organizations in the region to help reunite the families, underlining that Libya is not a safe place. MSF also said what happened was unacceptable and had put “in danger the lives of many people, and separating entire families."

"Many people were on an overcrowded rubber dinghy that was deflating, and they were threatened by armed men, who fired shots,'' Maria Eliana Tunno, a psychologist aboard the Geo Barents, said in a video. "They lived the horror of being separated from their wives and daughters, who were taken away."

One man jumped into the water in an attempt to get to his wife and two children, at baby of 4 months and a 10-year-old.

Tunno described the rescued men and boys as "very tired, desperate and under shock," adding that many had experienced abuses and inhumane treatment in Libya.

More than 62,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, according to Interior Ministry statistics. That is a big drop from the over 152,000 who arrived over the same period in 2023.

The United Nations reports that 2,124 migrants have died in the attempt to make the perilous Central Mediterranean crossing this year.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni's far-right-led government has adopted policies aimed at slowing migration to Italy, promoting multi-million euro deals with Tunisia and Egypt aimed at stemming departures, and building centers in Albania where it intends to screen migrants outside of Europe's borders.