The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) last night braved rough seas and strong winds to go to the aid of a group of migrants in an incident very strikingly similar to that of last Friday when a group of migrants were left clinging to tuna nets being pulled by a Maltese trawler.

The main differences are that yesterday’s incident took place 80 miles south of Malta and well within Malta’s search and rescue (SAR) zone and the migrants were brought aboard a trawler and to Malta safely.

While the operation was still on-going at the time of going to print, an Italian-Maltese crew of pilots and rescuers had brought two women ashore by helicopter to receive urgent medical treatment at St Luke’s Hospital, while the AFM’s Maritime Squadron had also dispatched the P-51 offshore patrol vessel to collect the rescued migrants.

The 27 migrants, mostly Somali women and children, appear to have been adrift at sea for five days and were somewhat worse for wear last night after being picked up by the trawler.

The AFM was informed yesterday morning by a foreign resident in Malta that he had received a satellite phone call from the migrant vessel and that it appeared to be in distress.

The AFM’s Rescue Control Centre was able to make contact with the boat by telephone and was informed it had been at sea for five days after leaving Libya and had seen no sign of land or other vessels.

While an aerial search ensued that afternoon, Azzopardi Fisheries contacted the AFM and confirmed that an Italian-registered, Sicilian trawler it had contracted, the Esaco, had spotted the migrants’ vessel alongside the tuna pens it was pulling. The AFM instructed the trawler to proceed toward Malta, since it was within Malta’s SAR zone.

With sea conditions deteriorating quickly from force five to six, the small migrant vessel capsized but did not sink and the migrants, many exhausted from their five-day ordeal, were taken on board the Esaco.

As of last night, the AFM was on its way to collect the remaining 25 rescued migrants from the trawler, which was travelling at just one knot with tuna nets in tow.

Meanwhile the Spanish tug, the Montfalcó, that picked up another group of 24 migrants in distress last Saturday continued heading toward the Spanish coast and is expected to arrive sometime tomorrow night, weather permitting.

Spanish Work, Social Affairs and Immigration Minister Jesús Caldera yesterday had words of praise for the Montfalco’s crew, and condemnation for Malta for not allowing the migrants to land on its shores. He criticised “other EU countries who did not welcome these people” and “who fully refuse to cooperate.”

He commented yesterday, “Our fishing boats, when they collect people on the verge of drowning, are carrying out a humanitarian task. These people must be congratulated for their spirit. I believe they are the pinnacle of Spanish society. If our fishing boat had not rescued them, they would have perished.”

The Spanish government, which has already confirmed it would be accepting all the Montfalcó migrants, has sent a marine rescue craft to meet the Montfalcó to collect the migrants, thought to be from the Ivory Coast.

The rescue vessel is expected to land the migrants in Barcelona.