Updated: Boat with 500 migrants aground at Lampedusa after 'heading for Malta'
File picture - A migrants' boat which sank off Lampedusa on April 8.
Updated 1.37 p.m.
The Armed Forces of Malta insisted today that a boat packed with migrants which was monitored by a Maltese patrol boat yesterday was not in distress and had not sought assistance as it headed towards the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Italian media earlier today claimed that the boat was escorted by Maltese coast guards towards Lampedusa after having been heading for Malta.
The boat, later found to be carrying 500 migrants, ran aground off Lampedusa this morning, but all on board were rescued.
The AFM in a statement said a patrol boat was deployed yesterday afternoon to intercept a migrants’ boat off Lampedusa after the Itaian authorities said they had no available assets.
The 20-metre boat was reported to be adrift 66 nautical miles (NM) south-west of Malta and 45 north-west (NW) off Lampedusa.
The AFM Air Wing’s Beechcraft King Air Maritime Patrol Aircraf was also scrambled to locate the boat.
By late afternoon the aircraft located the boat, steaming steadily northwards in a position just 42 NM from Lampedusa.
“The migrants’ vessel proceeded unaided towards Lampedusa under patrol boat P-61’s surveillance until an Italian patrol boat came alongside and escorted the vessel to por," the AFM said.
"Contrary to Italian media reports, the migrants’ boat was not in distress and did not request assistance. The migrants were navigating unaided at all times, under P61 surveillance."
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Mr Alex Buds
May 8th 2011, 16:25
I have no idea how these people are not afraid to get on these obviously unseaworthy boats, which would be dangerous in the best of conditions, let alone when overloaded by a factor of 25 or so. Boats made for carrying 20 people are carrying 400+!
Mr Keith Vassallo
May 9th 2011, 09:05
AFM, goes help illegal migrants free of charge, while if Maltese people are in any type of distress on there boats needs to pay for what they get.... VERY WELL DONE!!
Ms Rhonda Balzan Bastow
May 9th 2011, 14:27
OMG I can't believe you don't get it...THEY ARE AAFRAID, but more affraid of what is behind them if they don't leave. I saw this fortage in Australia breakfast news and wept. The longer version shows small babies being thrown to waiting arms; babies wailing and toddlers yelping for fear.
OK, there is a war in Libya. These people are the many thousands fleeing the bombing....they are probably almost for sure, those workers Gadaffi has installed to be a workforce he could control all these years (read decades). That's why, amongst other things liked having your wn military used against your own civil population, is the reason the communities in Libya have had enough.
Try to keep up...
I am sorry for this happenning to Malta...they are right around the corner from my mothers place in Birzebbuga, but not suprised...
bless you and stay safe (be greatful neither of us lives in such a place that we would boat such a death trap...
Charles Sammut
May 8th 2011, 16:09
"The 20-metre boat was reported to be adrift 66 nautical miles (NM) south-west of Malta and 45 north-west (NW) off Lampedusa."
That cannot be correct. 66nm SW of Malta would be 45nm SE of Lampedusa. Also how could the boat have been adrift when it continued steaming steadily towards Lampedusa where it arrived unaided? It seems that both sides are being economical with the truth.
Ms D Galea
May 8th 2011, 12:02
People who risk their lives and savings on a rickety boat ride for a better life in Europe do not want to end up on this overcrowded resourceless bit of rock called Malta from where it is impossible to move on.
They opt for Italy , arich ,G8, ex colonial country from where they can travel with hardly any problems to the rest of the European mainland.
Mr Robert Callus
May 8th 2011, 10:50
While I'm not in a position to say who is right, all this saga is about Berlusconi giving a show to impress the electorate after all his failures. I don't support the PN but between the Gonzi administration and the Berlusconi one I'm much, much more likely believe my country's government.
Charles Sammut
May 8th 2011, 10:20
Illegal immigrants would be crazy to head for Malta when the Italians airlift them out of Lampedusa give them a 6 month visa and a free train ticket north.
Mr Peter Agius
May 8th 2011, 08:53
If the boat was heading for Malta, how did it ran aground off Lampedusa??
Most Italians do not know where Malta is and the Italian authorities by means of their "portavoce" like ANSA, take advantage of this and make them believe that "prima terra" from North Africa is always Malta.
The fact is that boats on the way to Italy end up in Malta by mistake and not the other way round, because we are in the way when they leave Libya from our southern side. The Italians need a crash-course in basic geography so that they will be aware where thier country lies in relation to other states and islands in the Mediterranean.
Or maybe they don't because the situation siuts them fine the way it is.
Mr carlos ellul
May 8th 2011, 09:39
I agree. On the other hand I fear that you're missing three important points which are
a) Italy's colonial past (Somalia and Eritrea were Italy's former colonies) which make them the preferred destination for immigrants
b) The fact that unlike Malta, Italy is physically connected to Europe (its easier and often safer to cross the border illegally then to do it by sea)
c) Italy's bigger labor market.
The immigrants aren't stupid. Very few want to end in Europe's Ellis island when they can opt to Italy.
Stephen Koludrovic
May 8th 2011, 10:20
No African in his right mind would prefer to be stranded in Malta instead of Lampedusa.
Ms Emma Xerri
May 8th 2011, 14:16
And the most obvious and glaring point is that while the strife is in Libya, none of these 'boat people' are actually Libyan, but sub-saharan Africans who had started out on their track for Europe long before and got stuck in Gaddafi's Libya. The authorities are trying to tell as that they are fleeing the fighting in Libya, but if that were the case, what we should have been seeing is Libyans take to the boats and not sub-saharan Africans.
And speaking of fleeing in-fighting, why has not Europe, with its Christian tradition, opened its doors to the 1.5 million Coptic Christians in Egypt for example, who are being butchered and murdered by their fellow Muslim countrymen and why has the UN stayed silent about this? Is it perhaps because there is no Oil in Egypt and that the UN is controlled by the "Organisation of Islamic Countries" which comprise of over 60 countries that vote en-bloc? Is it because they happen to be Christians and not of the other 'prefered' faith? And why have the Copts not yet taken to their boats to escape the violence?