46 migrants arrive, 11 others believed dead

Around 11 would-be illegal immigrants are believed to have died and the remaining 20 on the same boat landed in Malta yesterday morning, a day after a fisherman defied the Armed Forces' orders to take them to Libya.

The immigrants, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Nigerians and a Somali, were brought to Haywharf on board an AFM patrol boat.

The corpse of a 21-year old woman was stretchered off the patrol boat as her sister looked on in grief. Another immigrant was assisted by the personnel of a waiting ambulance since he was suffering from arm injuries. One of the survivors also lost his wife at sea, according to the patrol boat captain.

The survivors - 16 men and four women - said that 10 other Africans had perished when their boat overturned in rough seas close to the Icelandic trawler Eyborg, which was commissioned with a Maltese fishing company. The immigrants purportedly left Libya on Thursday.

The Armed Forces initially ordered the captain of the trawler to take the immigrants to Libya, since they were picked up from a sinking boat in the North African country's search and rescue waters. The Icelandic trawler was even advised by Libyan authorities that it could proceed to the port of Misurata.

Fisherman Raymond Bugeja, however, ignored the orders and instructed the Eyborg to proceed towards Malta, even though he was threatened with arrest. Following contacts between the Icelandic and Maltese governments, the AFM decided to send a patrol boat, which happened to be participating in the EU border patrol agency's operations in the Mediterranean.

A spokesman for the AFM told reporters yesterday that the AFM opted to pick up the immigrants on humanitarian grounds, especially since they were exhausted and there was a dead person on board.

Contacted yesterday, the Maltese fisherman stood by his decision to get the immigrants to Malta.

"Libya is not the right place to provide assistance to these poor people, some of whom are being mistreated in their country. I believe they are safer in Malta," Mr Bugeja said.

He urged other fisherman to understand that asylum seekers do not leave their country on a whim.

"It's our duty to give them assistance, irrespective of whether they're black or white, westerners or easterners."

Early in the afternoon, another boat with 26 illegal immigrants, all male, landed at Gnejna, assisted by the AFM. The police are investigating.