Malta and Italy locked horns yesterday over which country was responsible for the tragedy near the island of Lampedusa where about 250 migrants are believed to have drowned after their boat capsized.

As Italian and Maltese military vessels carried on the search for possible survivors and bodies, Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni yesterday claimed Malta’s armed forces had told Italian coastguard headquarters in Rome they did not have sea assets to perform the rescue when the distress call was received in the early hours of Wednesday.

The allegation was flatly denied by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, who insisted that “at no point” did the Maltese rescue centre “inform or imply” that Malta could not deploy any assets.

He explained that the request to Rome was made to confirm the availability of assets that were closest to the location of the incident, providing the most rapid response.

In line with international conventions, he said, Malta’s responsibility was to coordinate search and rescue missions.

“Malta met its international obligations to the full,” Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.

The migrants’ boat, which was taking on water, was closer to Lampedusa than Malta and it capsized in rough seas in the presence of two Italian coastguard vessels. It was an hour after the tragedy occurred that the Italians asked for Malta’s assistance in the rescue operation, according to the AFM.

The search for survivors carried on yesterday with a Maltese patrol boat and the newly commissioned King Air aircraft working alongside the Italian coastguard. From a group of between 250 and 300 migrants, only 53 were rescued.

Mr Maroni made a ministerial statement about migration in the Italian parliament when he referred to the tragedy off Lampedusa, implying that Malta had reneged on its responsibilities since the distressed boat was in Malta’s search and rescue area.

However, Mr Maroni was criticised by an Italian MEP from the same coalition government.

Mario Mauro, the head of the Italian delegation in the group of the European People’s Party, representing MEPs of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right party, said this was not the right time to point fingers. He said Italy and Malta should work together to put pressure on the EU to respond collectively to the phenomenon of immigration.

Mr Mauro said that “the sunken boat tragedy, which occurred on Wednesday morning in the Strait of Sicily, should not be another cause for discord among European countries”. Ironically, Mr Maroni and Dr Mifsud Bonnici will sit at the same table on Monday in the EU Council of home affairs ministers and both will ask the 27-member bloc to trigger its immigrant emergency mechanism that would oblige all member states to shoulder part of the responsibility for migrants escaping Libya.

Mr Maroni said the number of migrants fleeing Libya had increased and they were taking to the sea from the same areas they used to use as departure points before a repatriation agreement was reached between Italy and Libya.

Search and rescue area

Malta coordinates search and rescue operations over a large stretch of sea from Tunisia in the west to Crete in the east. The SAR is a legacy from Malta’s colonial past.

According to international law, the country responsible for the SAR is not obliged to carry out all rescue operations within the zone. However, the country is responsible for coordinating rescue efforts if a boat is in distress by calling the nearest naval assets to the scene.

These naval assets could be military but also commercial or private sea craft that happen to be close to the distressed boat.

Malta has no income from managing the SAR and has turned down repeated requests by Italy to give up the large area.

In last Wednesday’s case the boat that was carrying the migrants was in Malta’s SAR. Given that it was closer to Lampedusa the Maltese coordination centre asked the Italian coastguard to dispatch boats from the Italian island. When the Italians said they were committed in other rescue operations, they located a Sicilian fishing boat in the area and directed it towards the boat in distress.

Eventually two Italian coastguard ships joined the fishing boat. The tragedy happened in the presence of the Italian coastguard as rough seas hampered rescue operations and the migrants’ boat capsized.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com