Unexplained gaps in search for missing migrants

The Armed Forces of Malta have failed to say why they did not deploy any assets on Thursday in the search for 70 migrants said to have been lost at sea the day before when their boat capsized.

Searches carried out by a German helicopter and an AFM patrol boat yesterday proved futile.

Eight survivors, who were plucked out of the water by a Maltese fishing vessel, the Madonna di Pompei, from a semi-submerged dinghy 70 kilometres off Malta on Wednesday, said there were as many as 70 more people with them aboard the dinghy, among them pregnant women and children.

Yet, the only aircraft involved in the search has been a German helicopter, which was diverted from a Frontex mission. The AFM's fixed winged aircraft previously reported to be a part of the search was not actually looking for potential survivors but was covering the patrol course of the diverted chopper and no other aircraft has been diverted for this search since Tuesday.

Even when the helicopter developed a technical fault and was grounded throughout Thursday morning, there was no other aircraft assigned to the search.

As to seaborne resources, an AFM patrol boat was only involved in the search on Wednesday and again yesterday, allowing a whole day to pass by with only the German helicopter searching the area from the air.

Asked to explain this apparent shortcoming, a spokesman for the AFM gave a detailed account of the rescue operation from the minute the alarm was raised by the fishing vessel which found the migrants, but at no point offered an explanation.

The patrol boat which picked up the survivors from the Madonna di Pompei scoured the area on the way to the fishing vessel and back but again, it was the only vessel actively searching the area where the migrants' dinghy was said to have capsized.

The helicopter spotted five bodies in the area, three on Tuesday and another two on Wednesday afternoon, but there were no signs of life.

Even the number of people aboard the dinghy is a controversial matter as the army claims that the migrants never said to them that there were 78 people originally aboard when it left Libya.

In its original statement, in fact, the army put the number of missing migrants at 10, pointing out yesterday that the figure came from the information they received from the fishing vessel and the rescued migrants.

Yet, when contacted, the captain of the vessel said the migrants had claimed all along that there were 78 people originally on the boat.

"They were in very poor shape," he said. "One of them even said he lost his pregnant wife, poor fellow... all of them said there were 70 more people out at sea."

The number would make the tragedy one of the biggest in recent years. In fact, the United Nations refugee Agency UNHCR yesterday said it was shocked at the loss of life, urging governments to get to the root causes of the problem.

The agency even called for the migrants to be released from detention immediately in view of their bad psychological state. However the Justice Ministry yesterday insisted that the migrants had to go through the set procedure before being assessed as "vulnerable persons" and thus released.

The migrants had been put into detention after interrogation.

The local representative for the UNHCR, Neil Falzon, said that the high commission had long been calling for a review of Malta's detention policy, especially with regard to vulnerable people, insisting that the migrants rescued last Wednesday were particularly traumatised and needed to be released and treated.

"We are especially calling for the release of the 15-year-old boy who is being held at Ħal Far. He should not have been put in detention in the first place. He can hardly talk and stand," Mr Falzon said.

Mr Falzon said the UNHCR had made arrangements, through an NGO, for a psychologist to visit him. He said the boy was feeling very lonely and was asking to, at least, be reunited with the other survivors, who are being held at Safi detention centre.

The ministry, however, said all illegal immigrants who were rescued or intercepted at sea or who land in Malta are adequately examined and treated by medics soon after they land and given any medical assistance required.

"As per standard procedure established with Médecins Sans Frontières, these eight immigrants were first screened and treated upon arrival on Wednesday. This was then followed up by another examination by an MSF doctor and a visit by an MSF psychologist on Thursday morning.

A further visit by the same psychologist was carried out this morning. The Ministry will be acting on the advice of the MSF psychologist in the further handling of this matter," the ministry said.