Italian military website absolves Maltese government

An Italian military website has lambasted the Italian media for distorting the facts about the saga of the 94 illegal immigrants who are the subject of talks between Italy and Malta.

The Corpi d' élite.net editorial absolves the Maltese authorities of any wrongdoing in the case of the group of Sudanese, Eritreans and Ethiopians who have been in limbo ever since they landed in Pozzallo, Sicily, last Saturday.

In the meantime, both the Home Affairs Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry reported no developments about the case, saying that discussions were still going on to establish whether the boat people should be sent back to Malta.

Following a 10-hour operation by the Armed Forces of Malta last Friday, 106 illegal immigrants agreed to disembark in Malta but the rest insisted on continuing their journey to Sicily.

Upon their arrival in Pozzallo, the Italian government informed its Maltese counterpart it wanted to send back the irregular immigrants.

Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said the dispute had to be resolved in the context of International Maritime Rescue Law.

The Italian military website was evidently upset by the number of claims made by the Italian media over the past days that Malta was violating a collaboration agreement signed by the two countries in 2001.

"Our advice to Home Affairs Minister Giuseppe Pisanu and his collaborators is to get the 2001 agreement (signed between Malta and Italy) and look at the clauses before accusing the armed forces of a country we consider to be a friend and which is already investing massive resources to deal with the problem of illegal migration," the editorial charges.

The editorial urges the media to probe the agreement in detail to realise that returning the migrants can only take place if the disembarkation takes places in internal waters - and not in territorial waters.

The editorial said television and newspaper networks, especially TG5 and Il Messagero, went to the extreme of "distorting" the news in such a way as to make the viewer believe that the boat had in fact berthed on the Maltese coast, with the local authorities accepting the 106 who decided to land and allowing the rest to continue on their journey to Italy.

The editorial explained that the Armed Forces of Malta intercepted the vessel in territorial waters 15 nautical miles to the south of the island. After making contact, just 106 of the 200 on board agreed to land in Malta and they were in a position to do this after the AFM sent another vessel to recover them. "This means that the other 94 illegal immigrants never made any contact with the Maltese coast."

The 2001 agreement states, among others, that the Maltese authorities are obliged to provide first aid to any boat which finds itself in difficulty in territorial waters. Malta is also bound to escort and bring all the occupants on land.

Though the sea on September 17 was rough it has yet to be established whether the passengers were in danger.

Italy may also exercise the right to send back illegal immigrants that land after leaving "Maltese territory" or that entered Maltese internal territorial ports, bays or creeks.

Taking into account the fact that the illegal immigrants were not in distress and the fact that the boat was intercepted 15 nautical miles from Malta proves that the local authorities did nothing wrong, the editorial concludes.