Malta has denied a claim made by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) that it ignored a distress call from a group of immigrants, and a spokesman for the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry said “Malta met its international search and rescue region obligations to the fullest extent possible”.
Reacting to an incident involving a boat carrying more than 20 people, mostly Eritreans, the UNHCR expressed concern about delays in the search and rescue operation on Sunday and Monday.
UNHCR spokesman Melissa Fleming accused Malta and Italy of relying on Libyan vessels to conduct the rescue inside Malta’s search and rescue zone instead of intervening and taking the group to a closer and safer port.
Addressing a press briefing in Geneva yesterday, Ms Fleming said distress calls were received on Sunday evening, including by UNHCR, and passed on to Maltese and Italian maritime authorities.
UNHCR said it is unclear which country had search and rescue responsibility when the distress calls were first sent. According to information made available to UNHCR, the boat was only rescued late on Monday, and by Libyan vessels.
Sources said that when the distress call was first sent, the migrant’s boat was well within the Libyan search and rescue area.
The Maltese search and rescue coordination centre asked a merchant vessel in the area to look out for the migrants’ boat, but it was never found.
The UNHCR spokesman said the boat in distress was in or near Malta’s search and rescue area, and around 40 nautical miles from Italy, but it still took about 24 hours for the rescue to take place.
Ms Fleming said: “Three women and an eight-year-old child were on board. We understand that all the passengers have now been taken back to Libya where they started their journey.
“Malta and Italy have high recognition rates for Eritreans. We are concerned about their access to international protection in Libya, which is not a signatory state to the 1951 Convention and has no domestic asylum system.”
Meanwhile, the UNHCR said it is being expelled from Libya without explanation. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees received a note from Libya last week, ordering it to leave the country. The agency wasn’t given an explanation and hopes the move is a temporary one.
UNHCR had been providing living allowances, housing, medical assistance and educational and legal support to the most needy among about 10,000 urban refugees and asylum seekers in Libya, mostly from Eritrea, Somalia and other African countries, as well as Palestinians.
Meanwhile, UNHCR hopes the search for durable solutions in Libya will continue. Within the framework of a partnership agreement with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, the International Organisation for Peace, Care and Relief (a leading Libyan NGO), and the Italian Refugee Council, UNHCR has been setting up mechanisms for the reception and screening of people intercepted en route to Europe.
This entails providing life-sustaining assistance and intervening when those requiring protection need to be released from detention.
A partnership agreement signed in May 2009 between UNHCR and the Libyan National Youth Organisation was expected to help improve protection in the country.