The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has expressed concern over delays in a search-and-rescue operation on Sunday and Monday involving a boat carrying more than 20 people, mostly Eritreans, near Malta.

It said that distress calls were received on Sunday evening, including by UNHCR, and passed to Maltese and Italian maritime authorities.

"It is unclear which country had search-and-rescue responsibility when the distress calls were first sent. According to information made available to UNHCR, the boat was only rescued late on Monday, by Libyan vessels."

The High Commission said that while the boat 'in distress' was in or near Malta's search-and-rescue area and around 40 nautical miles only from Italy, it took some 24 hours for the rescue to take place.

It claimed that Malta and Italy relied on Libyan vessels to conduct the rescue 'inside Malta's search and rescue zone' instead of intervening and taking the group to a closer and safer port.

Three women and a child were on board. It is believed that they were taken back to Libya, from where they started their journey.

"Malta and Italy have high recognition rates for Eritreans. We are concerned about their access to international protection in Libya, which is not a signatory state to the 1951 Convention and has no domestic asylum system," the UNHCR said.

LIBYA-EU RESUME PARTNERSHIP TALKS

Meanwhile, Libya and the European Union today began the seventh round of delicate negotiations on a partnership accord that should be signed later this year, an EU delegation member said.

The EU, which officially launched partnership talks with Tripoli in November 2008, hopes to sign a framework accord before the end of 2010, the source told AFP said on condition of anonymity.

The two sides are due to sign a first "national indicative agreement" covering the period between 2011 and 2013 and defining the areas for future cooperation and financing.

The official JANA news agency said three working groups were formed, with political dialogue, culture and education, and economy and trade among the topics to be addressed.

The European delegation was headed by Hugo Mingarelli, deputy head of the European Commission for foreign affairs.

The EU had initially hoped to complete the framework accord in 2009, but negotiations hit snags, notably on the issue of illegal immigration, with the European Commission pressing Tripoli to sign the Geneva convention on refugees.

The diplomatic crisis between Libya and Switzerland over the brief arrest in Geneva of a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in July 2008 has also clouded Libya-EU relations, prompting tit-for-tat visa bans on each others' citizens that was only lifted in March.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.