Migrants crossing over to Europe from Libya on board seaworthy boats were directed by Maltese army personnel towards the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to a confidential US embassy cable.
The classified cable sent from the US embassy in Rome by charge d’affaires Elizabeth Dibble in April 2009 chronicled the tense situation Italy was facing at the time as migrant crossings from Libya intensified.
The cable with the subject No More Mr Nice Guy: Ineffective Italian Response to Immigration Challenges, was released yesterday by whistleblower site Wikileaks, in partnership with leading Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
When speaking about the impression in Italy that its coastguard undertook the lion’s share of sea rescues in the Mediterranean, the cable refers to a conversation said to have taken place in Malta between Rome embassy officials and an unnamed army officer.
“A member of the Armed Forces of Malta told us the AFM responds to distress calls within its limited capacity, but admitted if the boat is deemed seaworthy the AFM points the migrants toward Lampedusa,” Ms Dibble wrote of her embassy’s conversation in Malta in February of that year. The tactic had been used in 2003 without success when the AFM refuelled a boatload of 148 migrants, who ended up being sent back to Malta by the Italian authorities.
After that the authorities always denied helping migrants continue on their way to Sicily or Lampedusa but the cable seems to suggest otherwise.
Then, in May 2009, in the wake of a diplomatic tiff with Italy over who should take in rescued migrants, the Cabinet authorised the army to help migrants at sea carry on with their voyage.
At the time Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi argued the army was obliged to help anybody in distress but could not force anyone to be brought ashore.
The cable said organisations working with immigrants reported that traffickers told boat people leaving Libya to head for an oil rig platform belonging to ENI, an Italian energy company.
“Upon arrival at the platform, they are told to head due north to Lampedusa,” the cable said.
The latest Wikileaks releases, in partnership with various media organisations, concern over five million e-mails referred to as the Global Intelligence Files, from the Texas-based “global intelligence” company Stratfor.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com