Sole survivor of migrant boat with 24 on board

An illegal immigrant wearing a life jacket who was rescued by an Italian trawler and brought to Malta by the Armed Forces of Malta claimed yesterday he was on a boat with 23 other migrants.

A search for more survivors by the trawler on instructions by the AFM yielded no results.

The army were informed on Thursday evening by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre Rome that the Italian fishing boat Valeria had picked-up an illegal migrant some 74 miles south of Malta.  

The migrant, wearing a life jacket, claimed he was on a boat with another 23 migrants whom he claimed were wearing life jackets. The Valeria followed instructions by the army's Rescue Co-ordination Centre by carrying out a two to three kilometre radius search from the surviving migrant's pick-up position. But no more survivors were located.

Later in the night, the MRCC Rome contacted the army again, notifying it that at 2 a.m., the Italian fishing vessel Beatrice had picked up a boatload of 28 migrants, consisting of 18 males, seven women, and three children. The Valeria passed on the sole survivor to the Beatrice.

The Beatrice was instructed to approach Malta and the army dispatched its Protector-class patrol boat P-51 at 7.25 a.m. yesterday.

A transfer from the two Italian fishing boats was made, and the migrants were brought ashore at Delimara at 10.55 a.m.

At 2.49 p.m., MRCC Rome once more informed the army of a report it had received from a drifting migrants' boat's satellite-phone, claiming there were some 60 persons on board. 

Having no clear position of the boat, the army's efforts to establish contact failed.

At 3.55 p.m., the Italian tug-boat Augusteo reported sighting 28 migrants about 47 miles south-west of Malta.  

The migrants' boat was moving slowly and initially it seemed the passengers appeared not to need any assistance.  

RCC Malta instructed the Italian tug to maintain its position and render assistance. The tug was towing a tuna pen.  

By 6.30 p.m., the Augusteo crew reported that some of the migrants were not well and requested assistance.  

The tug boat took on board the 22 men, five women, and a child. Five of the immigrants appeared to need medical treatment.

The Augusteo crew concluded that the five were suffering from burns from a fire, the source of which was unknown.

Closer to Maltese shores, and concurrent to the Augusteo rescue, the army was informed at 4.16 p.m., by Neil Falzon from the UNHCR Malta office that there was a boatload with 29 persons on board, some 27 miles off Malta. The group, the army was told, included six women and two children and that it could be reached by satellite phone.  

The army's Vittoria-class fast rescue-launch Melita 2 was dispatched but an extensive search yielded no results.

The P-51 was making speed to rendezvous with the MV Augusteo and linked-up with the Italian boat at 10.30 p.m. She was expected to bring in the immigrants to Haywharf, at the Armed Forces' Maritime Squadron early this morning.

The Italian media reported yesterday that at 2.40 p.m. a boat with 24 immigrants claiming to hail from the Ivory Coast and another from Burkina Faso was intercepted one mile from Punta Chiappa Granelli in Sicily and taken ashore to Porto Palo.