Malta is being requested by Amnesty International to employ a broader definition of distress at sea aimed at maximising the protection of life.

In a report “Lives Adrift: Refugees and Migrants in peril in the Central Mediterranean”, Amnesty states that the sharp rise in refugees and migrants prepared to risk the perils of long journeys in rickety, overcrowded boats was not just the product of increased instability in the Middle East and the deterioration of the situation in Libya over the last 12 months.

It was also a consequence of the progressive sealing off of Europe’s land borders and the absence of safe and legal channels for migrants and refugees to reach the EU.

“For so long as the EU continues to push those fleeing conflict or poverty to take dangerous sea journeys, it must be prepared – collectively – to meet its obligations to save lives.”

In its report Amnesty states that long-standing disputes between Italy and Malta over the extent of their respective search and rescue obligations historically undermined the delivery of effective search and rescue operations in the central Mediterranean.

“It is clear that the scale of the challenge surpasses the ability and resources of Italy and Malta to respond to it on their own. A collective EU response is needed to meet a shared EU responsibility.

Amnesty said that the EU’s announcement in August that it would deploy a Frontex operation to complement the efforts of Italy and Malta was a step in the right direction.

“But considerable doubts remain over both the ability of Frontex to deliver search and rescue operations at the level currently required and in the areas where they are needed; and the resources – which will have to be considerable – that the EU and its member states will invest in it.

“In the absence of a broader review of EU mechanisms for sharing the responsibility for – and distributing the cost of – receiving and processing irregular migrants and asylum-seekers, disputes over disembarkation are likely to plague Frontex-led search and rescue operations.

“Clearly, however, the key challenge is to reduce the number of people taking dangerous sea journeys in the first place. Tackling the network of smugglers and traffickers exploiting and mistreating those desperately seeking Europe’s shores is necessary, but not, in itself, a solution to the bigger forces at play. In the long-run, the EU and its member states need to reflect on how they can open up more safe and legal routes to enter the EU for both migrants and, especially, the refugees who compose almost half of all those arriving irregularly by sea.”

Amnesty called on both Italy and Malta to each establish an independent inquiry in to investigate the possible failures to act of all those involved in the October 11, 2013 shipwreck and ensure that the inquiries cooperate with each other.

Judicial investigations and prosecutions, it said, should follow where relevant.

The two countries should also ensure that victims and their families enjoyed their right to reparation, which included access to the truth and a guarantee of non-repetition.

Amnesty called on EU institutions and member states to offer more safe and regular routes to refugees to access protection, including by increasing resettlement and humanitarian admission places for refugees, facilitating family reunification for refugees who had family members living in the EU, applying a broad definition of family members to include extended or non-nuclear family, and applying flexibility as to documentary and other requirements.

The report can be read in the pdf link below.