Nearly eight months since a first request for an interview with the AFM Commander was made by this media house, Brigadier Clinton J. O’Neill is still to say yes.

Several attempts have been made since mid-September last year, and in spite of assurances that this interview will be given, including by the minister responsible for the AFM, this has never materialised.

Last Wednesday, outside Parliament, Minister Byron Camilleri was approached, not for the first time, and asked why O’Neill has not accepted this interview yet (see video below).

Ask them, of course, and they can give you this interview, Camilleri said with a half laugh, knowing full well that this newsroom has been requesting an interview with the brigadier for many months now.

The Malta Independent on Sunday believes that the time has come to publicly say that the AFM chief is reluctant to answer our questions.

For more than a year Malta has been accused of breaking international laws through delays and pushbacks by multiple entities. Even Italian politician Tommaso Foti in April accused Malta of “pretending not to see” these boats in distress when there was a massive influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

Malta has rescued 92 migrants in 2023, Camilleri said when responding to a parliamentary question at the end of April. Camilleri’s stance has been very clear – Malta will continue working hand in hand with the Libyan coastguard to stop human traffickers, reduce dangerous crossings and reduce deaths in the Mediterranean.

But given the criticism that has been levelled against Malta, and in particular the AFM, The Malta Independent on Sunday wants to conduct an interview with O’Neill to give the AFM a chance to respond to these claims and get a better insight into what the protocol of Malta’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) is. So far, this has not come to be.

Timeline of requests

O’Neill was appointed commander of the Armed Forces of Malta on 28 June 2022. The first request for an interview was made by this media house on 19 September.

It was filed in the days following the tragic death of Syrian four-year-old boy Loujin, who died of thirst at sea in Malta’s Search and Rescue zone after a delayed rescue.

An email was sent to the Home Affairs Ministry asking whether it would be possible to interview O’Neill, with the goal being “to reveal what goes on when a distress call from Malta’s SAR zone comes in”. We did not receive a reply to this email.

A few weeks later, on 4 October, we went to the AFM directly. The AFM’s Public Affairs Office was first contacted by phone and then sent an email asking for an interview. When the call was made, the official we spoke to said that this type of request needed to pass through the Ministry.

In our request, we said that “the interview will give the AFM the opportunity to shed light on the work that it does and the process that takes place when they receive an SOS call”.

A reminder was sent to the Ministry on 25 October, but no response was received to this either.

On 31 October, this newsroom’s editor-in-chief personally contacted Minister Camilleri on WhatsApp asking whether O’Neill was going to go through with the interview; this message also fell on deaf ears.

The AFM invited the media aboard the P71, Malta’s largest offshore patrol vessel, on 8 November where Minister Byron Camilleri was also present.

Before the tour began, Camilleri was asked in person whether the interview with O’Neill was ever going to happen. Camilleri had then confirmed that as far as he knows, O’Neill was going to go through with the interview.

Following what Camilleri said, attempts to secure an interview were put on pause until 10 January when another email was sent to the Ministry expressing frustration that months had passed and the Ministry was yet to respond to a single email, even though Camilleri himself had said that O’Neill was to give us the interview.

On the same day, a similar email was sent to the AFM requesting an update on our request.

Camilleri held a press conference at the Mediterranean Conference Centre on 12 January. After the press conference, he was confronted again in person, in the presence of his communications officer, asking for an update on the interview request.

Once again, Camilleri said that as far as he knows O’Neill was to give us the interview, but his communications officer intervened and said that O’Neill was not available at that time. That being said, Camilleri was still confident that O’Neill would go through with it.

What at the time seemed like a step closer, on 30 January, the AFM sent an email telling us that O’Neill was “slightly less busy at the moment” and that he is now “considering this interview”. The email requested that questions are sent beforehand “for approval”.

A day later, a reply was sent giving details of the interview and then on 2 February, draft questions were sent to the AFM. Unfortunately, we never received a response to this.

Reminders by email were sent to the AFM on 6 February, 20 March, 20, 24, 26, 28 April and 2 May. Phone calls were also made, however, these were never answered.

Nearly eight months later, we are still waiting.

This newsroom will continue chasing the AFM Commander for an interview, as it still believes that the AFM has a lot to answer for.