The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) yesterday urged the Maltese and other regional authorities to step up their search efforts for the boat of 53 migrants spotted on Monday and lost later in the day.

In a press release issued from its Geneva headquarters yesterday, the UNHCR said it was “very concerned about the fate of the 53 people” last seen by an Armed Forces of Malta aircraft on Monday afternoon.

From photographs taken by the AFM aircraft, the boat was severely overcrowded, had a failed engine and was taking on water as those on board attempted to bail it out to prevent it from sinking.

The UNHCR appealed to “governments in the region to increase coordinated efforts to trace the boat and provide assistance to those on board, some of whom may be asylum seekers fleeing persecution or armed conflict”.

The commission added that on Monday, passengers had contacted relatives in Italy by satellite phone, but attempts to contact them by telephone since then had proved futile.

The boat had been spotted on Monday afternoon by the AFM’s Air Wing Islander aircraft, which, after circling it for some two hours, had to return to Malta for refuelling, while the AFM patrol vessel P-61 was making its way to the last sighted location of the flimsy boat. But on its return to the area, some 88 nautical miles south of Malta, the aircraft found no trace of the boat, which seemed to have vanished into thin air. The

aerial search continued until sunset and was suspended until yesterday morning, while the patrol boat continued its efforts throughout the night.

The aerial search had continued on Tuesday morning, but to no avail. The search had been entirely suspended later in the day.

Meanwhile, another group of 29 migrants landed at Benghajsa yesterday morning, after two groups each of 24 were rescued at sea and brought to shore on Tuesday.

Another 26 irregular migrants – 25 men and one woman – were saved from a tragic fate yesterday by an Italian tug boat that was in the process of towing two fishing cages 25 miles south of Malta, inside Malta’s search and rescue area, when it spotted the group. The boat on which the migrants had been travelling sank as soon as they were taken on board the tug boat, from which they were subsequently transferred to AFM patrol boat P-51 that brought the group ashore at Delimara at around 7.15pm.