Around 14 illegal immigrants drowned in June 2008 as they were being rescued. A group of immigrants are now claiming the tragedy was a result of a "silly mistake" by the Italian coastguard. Christian Peregin spoke to two of the survivors.
Their childish enthusiasm to tell their story is disconcerting, because it seems they do not fully understand the implications of their claims.
Full of smiles, Ghanian Ernest Assumang Kumi and Nigerian Michael Aghetise say this is not the first time they have been asked about what happened.
They are quick to get into all the descriptive details of the rescue - gesticulating animatedly in the same way a pilot would recount a heroic landing to his grandson.
But their mood changes suddenly as they remember the moment their boat capsised. Mr Aghetise, 64, looks away as tears start streaming down his hardened cheeks.
"We will never be normal again," Mr Assumang Kumi, 34, says as he begs his friend to stop crying and struggles to hold back the tears himself.
"I remember the panic, people trying to keep their head above the water, and everyone pulling on each other's feet. I was pulled underwater a number of times," he says at Ħal Far's tent city.
They claim their boat had 31 people on board before the Italian rescue, including three children and three women - only 17 made it to Malta.
"We were at sea for five days. The weather was very bad but we were all OK. We did not have any problems," Mr Assumang Kumi continues.
The migrants then saw an Italian patrol boat, and since they knew the weather would worsen they decided to call for help.
"We took off our tops and started waving them. And we held up the babies so they would know we were not pirates."
But as they manoeuvred their small fibreglass boat next to that of the Italians, the soldiers lowered a large ladder for them to be able to climb onto the ship.
They claim the heavy ladder hit several of the immigrants, squashing them "like tomatoes".
"Suddenly we were all in the water," Mr Assumang Kumi says.
Mr Aghetise says the boat capsised when it was hit by the ladder. Some of the immigrants on the boat ended up underneath it, so when they emerged from the water they were trapped, without much air.
The Italian soldiers then lowered a large net around the side of their boat so the migrants could climb up.
Mr Assumang Kumi remembers someone managed to climb onto the capsised boat and hurled two of the young children at the soldiers so they could be rescued. The third baby drowned, as did one of the women.
Among the two rescued children was one-year-old Blessing, whose story was well-documented since she was orphaned in Malta after the journey. Her mother, father and brother are all believed to have drowned during the rescue.
"They did not tell us anyone died. We spent four hours on the boat in the same place, but we were told nothing. We thought everyone had survived," Mr Assumang Kumi says.
They claim the soldiers never jumped in the water to help save the drowning migrants and they were left to fend for themselves for around 30 minutes.
"This is their job. They should be experts. If I were on top I would feel very bad about this. It was a silly mistake that should not have been allowed to happen," Mr Aghetise says.
So why have they kept silent all this time?
"Who are we going to speak to? When we were brought to Malta we were too tired and weak to say anything. Then we were put in detention," he says.
Mr Assumang Kumi, a technician by profession, is unable to think about anything else, even after a year has passed.
"They owe us an apology, our lives are ruined. Our family and friends died and every day we must live with what happened and remember the trauma.
"I pray to God. I hope He can forgive them. I think if they give us protection it will mean a lot," the devout Christian adds.
A magisterial inquiry about the incident is still underway, but the Italian authorities are disputing some of the claims made by the migrants. In the meantime, an anonymous letter, purportedly written by a number of Italian soldiers, has claimed the incident was down to a "tragic error" during the rescue operation.
In the letter, addressed to the chief prosecutor of the Messina tribunal, the 'soldiers' described the sequence of events. Some of the immigrants, they said, were even "minced" in the patrol boat's engines since these were left on during the operation. Mr Assumang Kumi and Mr Aghetise do not recall anyone being seriously injured by being sucked into the engine's propellers, but they remember the screams and chaos.
The letter goes on to pin the blame on the captain, since the rescue operation was carried out recklessly.
The letter said the ship captain escaped to his quarters during the rescue, instead of managing his men, and that he has since destroyed all the photos and videos taken on the day. However, they claimed to have evidence of what happened on their mobile phones.
The captain was also accused of lying since he said there were 17 immigrants on board, when in fact there were at least 27. (The immigrants claim there were 31.)
In the letter, seen by The Sunday Times, the 'soldiers' apologised for remaining anonymous but they said there had been many transfers since the incident so they were afraid of the consequences.
They claimed that the captain was being protected and the people who were meant to be getting to the bottom of the issue were covering things up instead.
When contacted, a spokesman for the Italian coastguard pointed out that although the rescue was carried out by the Italian coastguard, it was coordinated by the Maltese since it happened in the island's search and rescue area.
The spokesman said there were around 20 people on board and that, contrary to what the migrants are alleging, the soldiers did jump into the sea to rescue them. He added that three members of the crew were being nominated for a bravery award.
The story has already found its way to the Italian media, even though popular journalistic programme L'Iene has not yet broadcast the show which it had advertised.
cperegin@timesofmalta.com