Search and rescue charity Moas, which is based in Malta, has won the first Today Public Policy Institute Peter Serracino Inglott Award for Civic Engagement.

Among the other nominees were Anselmo Bugeja, a volunteer for Fondazzjoni U; Philip Chircop, founder-president of Nanniet Malta; Fr Emanuel Cordina, founder of the Oasi Centre; the late Maurice de Giorgio, founder-president of Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti; Din l-Art Ħelwa; and Hospice Malta.

Moas was set up in 2014 by Christopher and Regina Catrambone, who now live in Malta.

President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca presented the award to Ms Catrambone during a ceremony at Verdala Palace.

She commended the recipients for their “outstanding initiative”.

The couple use their own search and rescue vessel, the Phoenix, which has so far rescued about 12,000 migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea.

The youngest survivor was just two days old. A total of 32 rescue operations were made between May and September 2015, the majority of those rescued being asylum seekers and refugees

The Today Public Policy Institute, formed eight years ago, is Malta’s only independent think-tank.

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