I refer to Maureen Caruana’s letter (The Sunday Times, July 10) on Gozitan AFM soldiers working in Malta.
The AFM’s nautical presence in local waters is based on its maritime law-enforcement duties at sea, which include anti-drug trafficking operations, patrolling against unauthorised landings of irregular immigrants, fisheries protection, and surveillance against pollution, among several other tasks.
For these reasons, a decision was taken for the AFM to station a patrol boat permanently in Gozo so as to better cover the northern sector of the Maltese territorial waters.
Since its start of operations in Gozo, the Maritime Squadron’s patrol boat P-32 has, among other things, aided the police in law and order enforcement on Comino, performed safety-boat duties during powerboat races, investigated, challenged and conducted boarding operations on suspect vessels, aided searches for missing divers and, during this month alone, evacuated three injured people from Comino’s Blue Lagoon area. P-32 has also sighted and recovered three reported dead Pharoah Hounds off the Gozitan coast.
Those serving onboard are nautically trained personnel, of which first preference was given to qualified and experienced Gozitan personnel who were already employed on other patrol craft operating from Maritime Squadron’s base at Sa Maison.