At least 150 migrants, said to have been fleeing Libya, are believed to have drowned yesterday morning when their boat capsized in rough sea after they had been reached by Italian rescue boats directed by Maltese authorities.
In a statement yesterday, the UNHCR put the figure at 213 but the Armed Forces of Malta said they were 150.
About 50 migrants were rescued and taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The AFM released a minute-by-minute account to clarify media reports, particularly Italian ones, making subtle allegations that Malta may bear some responsibility for the tragedy.
At about half past midnight, a resident at Ħal Far open centre gave a detention service employee the number of a satellite phone belonging to a boat carrying immigrants. The information was corroborated within minutes “by another phone call from a Somali individual”.
The AFM plotted the boat’s coordinates and made contact with those on board, finding out that it was more than twice as close to Lampedusa as to Malta and carrying some 200 people.
The AFM contacted the Italian coastguard in Rome and the Nato headquarters in Naples at 1.15 a.m. by fax, asking them to confirm the “availability of their respective assets”.
“At 1.20 a.m. Rome contacted Malta to confirm if this was a search and rescue case,” the AFM said.
The AFM later issued another press release to clarify that its original call had specified this was a distress call, since Italian media reports claimed Malta had not made this clear.
At 2.15 a.m. Rome told Malta that a local fishing vessel had been diverted to investigate since it was nearby.
“Between 1.35 and 3 a.m., several attempts were made to re-establish contact with the illegal immigrants’ boat via satellite phone but to no avail,” the AFM said.
By then, two Italian coastguard vessels and a helicopter were heading for the scene with the fishing vessel.
Malta then managed to establish contact with the migrants at 4.12 a.m. and they confirmed they were 32 miles off Lampedusa. At this point, the Italian coastguard told Malta it was in the area.
The AFM said that at 5.35 a.m. the patrol boats intercepted the migrants’ boat which had stalled without fuel at 4.15 a.m.
“Given weather conditions prevailing at the time in the area, they could not perform a mid-sea transfer of the persons on board,” the AFM said.
Then, just before 6.30 a.m., Rome told Malta the vessel had capsized due to the rough weather and a rescue operation was underway with the help of the fishing vessel.
Sources said the boat capsized because the migrants panicked and moved to one side of the vessel when they thought they were being rescued by an Italian vessel.
According to the AFM, 49 migrants were saved and returned to Lampedusa and a call was made at 7.47 a.m. for all ships in the area to assist.
“The bad weather started at about 6 p.m. yesterday. Our boat broke apart. We fell into the water. It was hell. There was water in my mouth but I managed to stay afloat,” one badly shaken youth, Cameroonian Peter Ugo, told Italian news agency Ansa.
Malta joined the rescue operation after 8 a.m., deploying a patrol boat, its air wing islander and its brand new aircraft King Air.
International media reports said the Italian coastguard was also dealing with two landings and a search and rescue of a boat carrying some 50 other migrants at the time, causing some delays in their operation.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency expressed “deep shock” about the drowning. They calculated some 213 people had drowned “in rough waters some 60 kilometres off the southern coast of Italy”.
According to survivors, the group also included Somalis, Eritreans and Ivorians who fled Libya three days ago, aiming to reach Lampedusa. Many women and children were among the dead. The UNHCR said 47 people were saved, including two women, one of them pregnant.
Movie star and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie made an urgent appeal to ensure safe passage out of Libya for the civilians caught in the crossfire.