Carola Rackete: People are terrified on these boats

Sea captain Carola Rackete has described what happened when their charity ship, the Sea-Watch 3, rescued 53 migrants who were drifting on an inflatable raft in the Mediterranean sea off the coast of Libya.

“People are terrified on board these boats. They know they can break, they can capsize sometimes, people fall off the boat,” she told BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur.

A lack of food, water, life jackets and navigation equipment meant it was a distress case as the raft would have been unable to arrive in any port, she explained.

After a two week stand-off with the Italian police, Sea-Watch 3 docked in at Italy’s Lampedusa island.

You can see the Hardtalk interview in full on Wednesday 4 September 2019 on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel and after on BBC iPlayer (UK only).