Updated: Unlikely that dinghy carried many more people - Brigadier

(Adds video)

It was highly unlikely that the dinghy on which the five Eritrean immigrants who landed in Lampedusa on Thursday travelled carried many more people, Brig. Carmel Vassallo said this evening.

The immigrants are claiming that another 75 who were with them died on the way.

Addressing a news conference, Brig. Vassallo said that the dinghy was first noticed by a Frontex helicopter in Libya's search and rescue area and a Maltese patrol boat was immediatly sent to assist.

AFM personnel used one of the patrol boat's dinghies to go to that which was carrying the immigrants, who had no food, water or fuel.

The army supplied these to the immigrants, who refused to be taken to Malta. They told the AFM that some of them had died on the way.

Brig. Vassallo said that the AFM kept surveilling the dinghy from a distance until it was close to Lampedusa. Their dinghy, he said, looked new and it was unlikely that it could have carried many more people. He did not exclude, however, that the immigrants could have been on another boat and transferred to the dinghy during their journey.

He said that no corpses were recovered as yet and although eight had been seen by the AFM, these were in an advanced state of decomposition and it was unlikely that they had any connection with the dinghy carrying the Eritreans.

He pointed out that a boat without fuel did not qualify as a boat in distress and said that footage and photographs of the incident had been taken and although they would not be made public, they had been passed on to Frontex.

See also:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090822/local/maltas-sar-is-not-for-sale-tonio-borg