Middlesex and Kingston universities have joined forces to send 10 students to support the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) with the aim of monitoring migrant flows and compile data which would then be handed over to EU policymakers.

The team, which is made up of graduates and whose work is being funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme, is based in Malta and Italy.

The students are communicating up-to-the minute information from the joint MOAS-MSF boat the Phoenix.

The initiative was announced this morning at the Phoenicia Hotel by representatives of both Middlesex and Kingston University in the presence of former AFM Commander Brigadier Martin Xuereb, who is also the director of MOAS.

The students have different roles, some of whom are studying migratory routes while others are compiling footage and editing it.

Brig. Xuereb explained that there’s a lot of information out there but the most important thing is to pick the right information and put it together.

“Our mission is to save lives at sea but in parallel form part of a partnership which can influence the way policies on migration are created,” he said.

Tomorrow, the students will accompany a delegation of academics from Middlesex and Kingston universities on an official visit to Sicily, including the island of Lampedusa. The delegation visit to Malta today coincided with the launch of the Mediterranean Observatory on Migration Protection and Asylum (MOMPA). The students and academics will be visiting Pozzallo and meeting UNHCR representatives at migrant reception centres.