One dead, others hospitalised as 61 rescued by AFM when migrant boat capsizes

Updated 2.20pm

One man has died and six were taken to hospital after 61 migrants were rescued when their boat capsized off Malta on Friday. 

The 59 Bangladeshis and two Egyptians on board were rescued by the Armed Forces of Malta minutes after a fisherman alerted them to the incident. 

Two men were taken to hospital in critical condition, but one died shortly afterwards. Six others were treated for hypothermia, but none are believed to be in critical condition. 

Sources said AFM rushed to the scene, rescuing the group. 

Two of the migrants were airlifted out of the water, while the others were taken to Malta by a patrol boat. 

Photo: Jonathan Borg.

Emergency responders were at the scene on Friday morning. Photo: Jonathan Borg.

Several people could be seen wrapped in white blankets under tents at the Buġibba quayside, accompanied by emergency responders. An AFM boat was moored at the site.

An AFM spokesperson said that at 8.43am, Malta's rescue coordination centre "received a report of a boat with irregular migrants in distress outside the Maltese coast, with information also indicating that several persons were in the water".

Aerial and maritime units were "immediately dispatched to the area to provide assistance", the spokesperson said. 

"All persons were recovered... and given immediate care, as several were showing signs of severe hypothermia. After the AFM carried out the recovery, the individuals were subsequently attended to by other competent authorities".

A man wrapped in a blanket, recovering from his ordeal. Photo: Jonathan Borg.

Sources said the group had left Libya, probably hoping to reach Italy or the island of Lampedusa. Malta generally treats Bangladesh as a “safe country of origin” in practice, meaning that many Bangladeshi asylum claims are seen as not meeting the threshold for protection and are frequently rejected.

The men at Buġibba waterside. Photo: Jonathan Borg.

Photo: Jonathan Borg.

Photo: Jonathan Borg.

Friday's arrivals mark the first notable arrival of irregular migrants to Malta in recent years; since 2020, the number of irregular arrivals has plummeted from more than 2,200 that year to just 238 last year.

As of last week, there had been 185 migrant arrivals in Malta so far this year, out of a total 136,000 sea arrivals across the Mediterranean, according to data provided by the UN refugee agency.

Italy, meanwhile, has seen almost 64,000 arrivals and Greece nearly 44,000 so far this year.  

The decrease in arrivals to Malta is attributed to a secretive migration coordination deal with Libya five years ago.  

Meanwhile, data released earlier this year shows that interceptions by Libyan militia forces surged by a staggering 230% over the same period. 

The findings suggests that by last year, a migrant boat in distress in Malta's rescue zone was around 10 times more likely to be intercepted by Libyan militia than rescued by AFM.