Malta has not yet received the scores of fleeing immigrants it was expecting from North Africa but, since February, when the violence broke out in Libya, there have been 37 requests for asylum.
Eight of the asylum seekers are Libyan, a figure that includes the two pilots who defected and flew their fighter jets to Malta last month, allegedly after having defied orders to bomb civilians.
The other applications were submitted by Palestinians, Nigerians, Sudanese, Iraqis and Eritreans, although the government has refused to divulge further information saying it could “lead to their identification”. The government also refused to say how many of these asylum seekers left from Libya.
It said three of the applicants, all Palestinian, have “implicitly withdrawn” their applications because they had since left Malta for Lebanon.
Interestingly, the Eritreans did arrive by sea but not in a wooden boat like the ones bringing thousands of immigrants to Lampedusa in recent weeks.
Fourteen Eritreans, including a woman and a baby, arrived on a Maltese registered cargo ship, Triva I, which informed the government it was carrying them after it berthed in Marsaxlokk Bay. Sources said the migrants boarded the ship in Libya claiming they had official documentation from the UN refugee agency.
Initially, they were refused entry and told to stay on board because the ship did not have authorisation to bring people to Malta and none of the Eritreans had the necessary documentation.
“It was only after the boat’s captain told the Maltese authorities the people wanted to apply for asylum that they were allowed to disembark and were taken by the immigration police,” the sources said.
The government said the men were being held in detention while their asylum requests were processed. “All legal steps according to the law will be taken against the ship owner,” it said. Only those asylum seekers who arrived in Malta illegally or without documentation are being kept in detention. None of the asylum applications has been concluded.
There has been a small spike in asylum seekers over the past two months. Last year saw an average of nine per month.