Two migrants drowned on Sunday night and another is missing after a boat carrying 29 people capsized just before the Armed Forces carried out a rescue some 30 nautical miles south of Delimara.

The tragedy took place just as the AFM’S Maritime Squadron’s P-24 patrol boat made contact with a boat containing the migrants. It is understood that in their anxiousness to be taken off the rickety boat, the migrants rushed to one side of it, causing it to capsize. Initially, the boat was in tow, but weather conditions worsened overnight and the decision was taken to take them aboard the AFM vessel.

When P-24 pulled alongside the migrant boat, the whole sorry turn of events unfolded. Out of the 29 aboard, 26 were pulled to safety by the AFM. Out of the total number, 24 were male and two were female. Two people drowned and another person is still missing. A search was carried out again yesterday morning in hope of finding the missing man.

The sequence of events unfolded when the Malta-registered cargo vessel Illyas Efendiyev reported to the AFM’s Operations Centre at the Luqa barracks that there was a boat load of people in distress some 30 miles south of Delimara on Sunday afternoon. The AFM’s Air Wing dispatched an Islander aircraft and a sighting was confirmed at 7.22pm.

As a result, the aircraft directed P-24 to the spot and contact was made at 9.50pm. The boat was taken in tow, but soon after a decision was taken to take the immigrants on board. They arrived back at Haywharf at 2.30am in the early hours of yesterday weary and evidently in shock and were taken to police HQ for investigation. The Detention Centres' commanding officer, Lt. Col. Brian Gatt, present on the spot, said the group was made up of both west and east Africans.

This was not the only incident which the AFM had to deal with on Sunday. In fact, the Operations Centre was in contact with neighbouring states’ Rescue Coordination Centres.

At 9.20am on Sunday, MRCC Tunis relayed a report from the fishing vessel Mohammed Rajeb that a boat with 40 migrants onboard, in position 83Nm SW off Malta requested assistance.

Since this was nearer to Lampedusa (30Nm), the migrants were picked up by an Italian Military Vessel later in the day.

Also, throughout the day, a number of phone calls received at the Marsa Open Centre were alleging that a number of persons were in distress in a number of boats in various positions out on the high seas. No contact or sightings were made to verify these received reports.

Later, at 4.30pm RCC Tunis informed the AFM that fishing-vessel Abdel Kader had been boarded by 50 people who were in a rubber dinghy boat full of migrants. Since this was considered as a suspected case of piracy, an AFM Islander was dispatched to the area while AFM offshore patrol-vessel P61, which was in the vicinity, was also dispatched and prepared its ship-boarding and hostage-rescue procedures.

At approximately 6.40pm, RCC Tunis informed the AFM that the situation was back to normal since the migrants had left the boat and were on their dinghy alongside the fishing boat. With P61 in the area, and migrant boat in sight, a Tunisian military vessel was also observed in the operations area. The 57 migrants were on board (35 males, 18 females and four children) later moved under their own steam towards Lampedusa, without requesting further assistance.