A group of 83 migrants was brought to Malta by the AFM at around lunchtime yesterday just hours after a dilapidated fishing boat full of corpses from an earlier rescue operation was towed in at Hay Wharf.
The group, which included women and two children, was from a boat in distress intercepted south of the island by a merchant ship early in the morning.
At about 8.15am, an AFM patrol boat entered port carrying four bodies and towing the 25-metre fishing boat whose lower deck held another 25 corpses.
The 29 dead migrants are believed to have drowned trapped inside the fishing boat, which was carrying about 400 people who were rescued in a major operation on Friday.
Another victim, an infant whose parents refused to let go of him, was taken to Italy along with the survivors, one of who also died on the way to Italy. This brings the death toll to 31.
They had all had fled Libya hoping to reach Europe.
Their vessel was inside Malta’s search-and-rescue area but 68 miles off Lampedusa.
Thanks to @Armed_Forces_MT for their sterling work
Yesterday, the fishing boat, whose upper deck was covered with discarded clothes, shoes and life-jackets, had to be emptied of water before the corpses could be retrieved. It took some four hours and four trips of a water bowser to complete the job.
The opening to the lower deck was then enlarged with a chainsaw before the police, civil protection personnel and members of the AFM, including from the hazardous materials (Hazmat) unit, could start to bring out the victims. Forensics doctors examined the bodies on site.
According to the Italian coastguard, a Danish merchant ship had raised the alarm when the fishing boat started taking in water nine hours from land.
The AFM said a stampede may have been behind the deaths. Their nationality has not yet been established but it has been reported that the majority were Syrians and Eritreans.
Just when all the bodies had been retrieved from the fishing boat, at around 12.45pm, 83 migrants were brought in on another patrol boat.
The AFM Operations Centre in Luqa Barracks had been informed early in the morning that the boat they were on required urgent assistance. They were intercepted south of Malta by the merchant vessel MV Val Gardena, which took the migrants aboard. An AFM vessel on border patrol in the zone then picked them up.
This brings to five the number of search-and-rescue operations coordinated by the AFM since Thursday, with a total of 1,145 migrants involved. Italian forces rescued 4,000 migrants within this period. The two forces work together to rescue people at sea.
Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia yesterday tweeted: “@EuropeanUnion must take action. Malta and Italy cannot be left alone. Thanks to @Armed_Forces_MT for their sterling work.”
The tweet echoed Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s claim last month that the EU had abandoned Malta and Italy.
“Europe has forgotten us all. We are two countries [Malta and Italy] on the frontier and when it came to the crunch we found the Americans ready to help us not Europe,” Dr Muscat had said on One Radio.
Those comments had come after five migrants, including a baby and a woman, were brought to Malta following a relentless 12 hours which saw passengers on 25 vessels rescued simultaneously.
The AFM had described it as the “largest aero-naval search and rescue operation” in the Mediterranean for years.
Deaths at Sea
• More than 2,700 died crossing the Mediterranean Sea since 2007;
• 2011 was the most deadly year on record when 1,500 perished;
• More than 500 people died in two incidents in 2013.
According to UNHCR Malta data till April 2014.