An AFM statement said that on Saturday afternoon, the captain of Gibraltar-registered MV Zuiderdiep contacted the AFM Operations Centre requesting assistance. The ship was sailing from Tarragona in Spain, to Antalya, Turkey, when it sighted a 20-foot boat with 74 migrants, drifting approximately 133 nautical miles east of Malta.

MV Zuiderdiep recovered all the people on the boat and, following coordination between the AFM Operations Centre and MRCC Rome, the ship was directed to proceed to the nearest port, Syracuse in Sicily.

En route to its destination, MV Zuiderdiep’s captain requested medical assistance and evacuation for two of the migrants on board his vessel.

In view of the distance to be covered and the limited visibility, an Italo-Maltese joint crewed Italian Military Mission AB212 helicopter was dispatched to airlift and convey the two immigrants to St Luke’s Hospital. In the event, however, only one male migrant was airlifted and conveyed to St Luke’s for medical attention, the AFM report added. The second one is reported to have died before the rescuers arrived.

In the early hours of yesterday the MV Zuiderdiep arrived in Syracuse and the migrants were taken ashore for medical assistance and investigation.