LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Another group of migrants is at risk in Maltàs search and rescue area, with the international NGO Alarm Phone urging the Maltese authorities to intervene and not to organize a pushback to Libya as it happened a few days ago with a group of 500 migrants.
Alarm Phone confirmed that 400 migrants onboard a large boat are in distress, and declared that the Maltese authorities were alerted, however, “the authorities keep silent if they will launch a rescue operation to bring people to safety,” and even though several merchant ships were close the migrants, the vessels did not stop.
While declaring that it was unable to reconnect with the 400 migrants in distress, Alarm Phone confirmed that the international NGO Seawatch found the boat. Seabird, an aircraft operated by Seawatch located the migrants, and it was confirmed that merchant ships nearby are waiting for governmental instructions to rescue the migrants.
However, Seawatch accused the Maltese rescue and coordination centre that it is ignoring the emergency and refuses to cooperate while migrants are in severe danger. “Malta must act now!” declared Seawatch in its appeal to the Maltese authorities.
Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of Malta refused all claims made by international NGOs that it forcibly returned a boat carrying 500 migrants to Libya, saying no such boat was found in the position flagged by activists. The Armed Forces confirmed that multiple searches of the boat, based on multiple verifications of its location were carried out but “no boat was sighted in the reported position,” adding that “Maltese authorities have no jurisdiction over any autonomous actions conducted in International waters.”
Alarm Phone has said that the boat was carrying men, women, and children from Syria, Egypt, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and its engine stopped working after it entered Maltàs search and rescue zone last Tuesday and that it then started taking in water.
foto: agenziafotogramma.it
(ITALPRESS).
