Malta and Italy have started trading accusations over their roles in the 11 October Lampedusa tragedy, Italian weekly news magazine L’Espresso has reported.
A report penned by journalist Fabrizio Gatti says that the Italian government has replied in Parliament to a “clear accusation” by Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who claimed that “Italy did not do its duty to save 260 Syrian migrants, including some sixty children.”
L’Espresso says that Dr Muscat made this claim a few weeks ago on Maltese television (Xarabank), when he said that the former commander of the AFM Martin Xuereb had called him asking for instructions. “What are we going to do because according to the international rules we are not the ones who are supposed to take them? But we are seeing people go under one by one. They cannot fight the currents anymore. I said listen, forget all the rules and laws. Pick them up and bring them to Malta.”
Rome’s reply came a few days ago in Parliament, through the Undersecretary for Defence, Gioacchino Alfano. “Replying to an urgent interpellation by the Movimento Cinque Stelle, Mr Alfano said that Malta was responsible to coordinate the rescue under the Hamburg Convention. Since Malta did not ask for Italy’s help, the Marina Militare and the Guardia Costiera could not intervene.” This is how four hours were wasted, says Mr Gatti.
Call for a Parliamentary inquiry
“Not satisfied with Mr Alfano’s reply, other members of the Italian Parliament, including the Vice President of the Parliamentary Defence Committee and members of the M5S presented a proposal to launch a parliamentary inquiry on the tragedy. They also signed a resolution that binds the Italian government to optimise its search and rescue capabilities with its Maltese counterepart.”
L’Espresso says that a Parliamentary inquiry could finally shed new light on what happened on 11 October - something that the Italian and Maltese authorities have so far refused to do.
The inquiry could also investigate whether the Italian Navy ship ITS Libra had a functioning Navtext receiver. The Italian ship was close to the sinking migrant boat but did not intervene. An international Hydrolant message – that is received by Navtext devices – was ignored by the Libra and by other ships that were passing through the area. L’Espresso says that the top Navy chief, Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi, has refused to comment on the Libra’s failure to assist the migrants. On receiving the first distress signal the ship moved closer to the migrant boat, but did nothing until it was asked to help by the Maltese authorities after the migrant boat capsized and sank. When the boat sank at 5.07pm, the Libra’s helicopter was still on deck. If it had been scrambled after the first distress call at 11am, it could have notified the ship’s captain that the migrants were in grave danger and the ship would have been sent to the rescue before the boat sank.
Malta and Italy locked in arm-wrestling match
The Italian news magazine says that it seems that Italy and Malta are once more locked in yet another arm wrestling match. “The Maltese could have taken it for granted that the Italian vessel, being so close, would come to the rescue.” But it didn’t. The Dublin Treaty, that says that the country that rescues the migrants must offer them asylum, could also have been a contributing factor.
On Dr Muscat’s interview on Xarabank, Mr Gatti says that the Maltese Prime Minister gave the impression that, to him the Italians should have affected the rescue. “The rules that he told Brigadier Xuereb to ignore, however, say that Brigadier Xuereb should not have called the Prime Minister, but rather the Italian Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome. He should have asked them for help, but the call was only made after the migrant boat sank.”
Mr Gatti writes that the phone call between Muscat and Xuereb points toward the hypothesis that Malta wanted to save the migrants by itself. “Bravado” by part of the Maltese PM to raise his political image in front of the EU in the days following the 3 October tragedy.
“This would explain the lack of decisions taken by the Maltese between 1pm and 3pm, when the AFM plane finally took off. Two hours wasted until Joseph Muscat decided on what to do.”