Migrants' fate uncertain as Libya fails to help

The fate of 50 illegal immigrants was hanging in the balance last night, a day and a half after Libya and an Iranian cargo ship failed to go to their aid despite requests from Malta.

On Thursday afternoon, the migrants sent a distress call through a relative in Malta from two boats about 47 miles off the Libyan coast, within Libyan search and rescue waters. The AFM immediately contacted Libyan and Italian search and rescue centres.

Yesterday, after contact with the migrants had been lost for some time, one boat managed to get in touch with the relative again, reconfirming that they required assistance and giving their latest position.

Yesterday evening, after the Armed Forces contacted one of the boats again, they informed Libya who promised to send an aircraft to search for the boats at 6 p.m. The Libyans said they would keep the AFM posted. However, by late last night, the AFM had received no word from the Libyan side. The incident is another in an appalling week in the Mediterranean, in which boats carrying desperate illegal immigrants have been capsizing with alarming regularity and corpses have been found at sea.

Chronological details released by the Armed Forces of Malta yesterday show that after the migrants made contact, Libya refused to go to the rescue of two groups of 25 immigrants in distress, citing bad weather.

On Thursday afternoon, an individual from the Marsa open centre phoned the AFM to say that two boats, with 25 immigrants on each, were drifting off Libya. Both vessels were equipped with satellite-phones.

Within 20 minutes, the AFM informed the Libyan and Italian rescue authorities about the case by fax. Contact was also established with one of the boats, whose occupants confirmed their position and requested help.

At around 5.15 p.m., the immigrants reported that the sea was getting rough.

At about the same time, the Libyan rescue centre informed the AFM by fax that they would review the case the following morning. Rome was updated on the boats' positions.

Over the next hour or so, while the immigrants continued to provide their updated positions, the army exchanged information by fax with Rome. The immigrants' local contact also provided more details.

At 7.45 p.m., the AFM contacted one of the migrants' boats again and advised them to change course back to south, given the inclement weather forecast.

After being informed of the latest updates, the Libyan Rescue Coordination Centre said no patrols could be conducted by the Libyan coastal police or navy due to bad weather. 

Libya was requested to contact an Iranian-registered cargo vessel Iran Zanian, located some 40 nautical miles from the boats, and asked to guide its crew towards the migrants in order to assist them.

At 9.34 p.m., while still within 52 nautical miles from Libya, one of the migrants' boats informed Malta that its motor had stalled. 

Moments later, Libya advised the AFM that Tripoli radio had made contact with the Iranian ship and Malta again gave it the boats' last positions.

Just before 10 p.m. the Iranian vessel was approximately 26 nautical miles - a mere one hour 20 minutes - away from the migrants.

But Malta received a call from the ship's captain at 10.38 p.m. saying he was afraid to take the migrants on board in case they were armed.

Since still well within Libyan search and rescue responsibility, the captain was advised to contact the Libyans for further guidance, to which the ship replied that they had done so with Libya and Italy.

The AFM reconfirmed that the boats were still in the Libyan search and rescue region and at 10.50 p.m. informed Libya that the Iranian ship required further guidance on the matter.

Seven minutes later, the Iran Zanian informed the AFM that the Libyan rescue centre had told them to proceed on their original course. A telex statement of this received order was requested from the vessel.

When it asked Libyans about this order, the AFM was informed they knew nothing about it. Subsequently, in reply to a faxed enquiry, Libya's rescue coordination centre said that "an authority" had issued the order.

No further contact could be established with the Iranian vessel. The Libyans again told the AFM that they could not perform the search and rescue due to bad weather. Asked for a fax statement of their future intents, they said that all their offices were closed at night and no fax machine was available.

No contact could be re-established at that point with the migrants' boats. When contact was made with the Iranian vessel, the AFM signalled it was still awaiting their telex statement on the order received from Libya. 

This was received at 1.45 a.m. via e-mail, stating that Tripoli's authorities concluded it was not advisable to conduct search and rescue operations based on the Iranian captain's own recommendations.

Yesterday evening, the AFM were still waiting for Libya to inform it of any developments resulting from the search it had promised to carry out.

Neil Falzon, head of the UN Refugee Office in Malta, last night called on coastal states, especially Libya, to fulfil their obligations.

"We deeply regret the way things developed in this case... we just hope they're still alive," he said.