The remaining 25 migrants stranded at sea and picked up on Wednesday by an Italian trawler contracted by a Maltese fishery were brought safely ashore, rather worse for wear, at Hay Wharf by the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) late yesterday morning.
Two female members of the group, which was adrift at sea for five days after leaving the Libyan coast, had been brought to St Luke’s Hospital by helicopter to receive urgent medical attention on Wednesday afternoon.
The entire group comprised nine women and 18 men - all allegedly hailing from Mogadishu, Somalia - the youngest of whom were two 15-year-old boys.
The situation unfolded Wednesday morning when the AFM was informed of a migrant vessel distress. The AFM, after confirming the boat’s coordinates, launched an aerial search for the boat shortly after.
In the meantime, Azzopardi Fisheries contacted the AFM to confirm an Italian-registered trawler, the Esaco, it had contracted 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, from its position some 80 miles south of Malta.
With sea conditions deteriorating quickly from force five to six, the small migrant vessel capsized but did not sink and the migrants, exhausted from their five-day ordeal, were taken on board the Esaco.
The AFM’s P-51 offshore patrol vessel was dispatched at around midnight on Wednesday to collect the rescued migrants, but progress was hindered by rough seas.
The trawler was reached some five hours later and a decision was taken to transfer the migrants to the AFM vessel at first light, given the precarious sea conditions and the migrants’ weakened state of health.
In the meantime the P-51 launched a dinghy team to investigate matters on board and found, according to an AFM spokesperson, the migrants exhausted but very well treated, with the crew having even offered up their own bunks. The transfer operation had lasted about an hour as the migrants were brought aboard the AFM vessel in groups of three to six.
Diplomatic efforts underway
Brussels, meanwhile, appears to be making good on its promise to look into the confusion and lack of coordination on two incidents last weekend when two groups of migrants were picked up within Libya’s search and rescue zone – one by a Spanish tug and another left clinging to tuna nets pulled by a Maltese-contracted trawler.
Malta has come under fire for not having physically assisted in either case, after the country held its ground by insisting that rescues outside its search and rescue area were outside its responsibility.
The EU is gathering a group of national experts to draw up a so-called, and urgently needed, code of conduct on dealing with irregular migrants at sea. The group will determine who should take responsibility for migrants found in desperate conditions at sea.
Italian MP and Maltese citizen Arnold Cassola yesterday raised the recent humanitarian crises in the Mediterranean in Italian parliament yesterday. The EU’s maritime policy which, he said, has become totally inefficient and he urged the Italian government to pressure the European Commission into immediate action to remedy the situation.
He also suggested revising of the stretches of sea assigned to individual countries, which are based on airspace allocation and which, he said, was creating enormous difficulties for the countries involved.
Spanish tug breaks down, arrival expected tomorrow
Meanwhile the Montfalcó, the Spanish tug that picked up a group of 24 migrants in distress last Saturday from Libyan waters, suffered engine trouble on Wednesday night as it progressed toward Spain - further prolonging what will be a week-long ordeal.
The migrants, who were transferred yesterday to a Spanish naval vessel for faster transport, is expected to make port at Tarragona some time tomorrow, weather permitting.
The migrants, thought to be from the Ivory Coast, are said to be in a decent state of health. The Montfalcó yesterday was heading for the Sicilian port of Marsala, where it will receive mechanical assistance, after having sheltered Wednesday night off the island of Pantelleria due to engine trouble.