Immigrants adrift

I have been instructed by my client, Joseph Bugeja, to write with reference to the item entitled AFM Destroys Migrants' Boat After Rescue (October 16).

Mr Bugeja would like to clarify that he had the immigrants' boat under tow, using his own rope, when the AFM capriciously cut it free and torched it.

He was returning with this boat to Maltese territorial waters and he had absolutely no intention of either setting it adrift and causing a hazard to navigation, or, after having salvaged it, of letting it be taken by third parties, be they other fishermen or "sailing potential human traffickers".

A report, detailing the true and full sequence of events, was lodged with the Commissioner of Police on October 15. A magisterial inquiry has been requested and in other circumstances it would already have started. In fact, the duty magistrate was not even informed.

The AFM went to great lengths in an effort to justify and to explain its actions. This so-called explanation is riddled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies.

The AFM states that "under normal circumstances it makes every effort to tow to Malta any craft intercepted at sea which was either in distress, adrift or unattended".

The boat Mr Bugeja was towing was no longer in distress, due to his own and his crew's actions in having already taken it in tow; and it was most certainly neither adrift nor unattended.

Such boats are also at times badly damaged on being hit by seacraft during the rescue operation. Well, sometimes such damaged boats do not sink and they remain afloat, half submerged, causing a real potential hazard to navigation - not to large steel vessels but to the Maltese fishing fleet and to amateurs navigating these waters.

At least six of these boats have been recovered at sea by local fisherman in recent weeks and all are currently being repaired. These boats were recovered without their high-powered engines, compasses or hand-held GPSs.

The AFM further asserted that the destruction of this unsinkable boat, made of unsinkable fiberglass expanded foam, was carried out in order to eliminate a hazard to navigation.

A boat constructed in this manner does not sink when burnt. The flames are usually extinguished no more than 30 centimeters above its waterline, leaving the water logged remains to float just below the surface.

Instead of eliminating a so-called hazard in the form of a very visible floating boat, the AFM is guilty of having created an invisible one.

The Times reported the AFM stating that ''In the particular case of the night of October 14, the immigrants were visibly greatly exhausted and in dire need of urgent medical attention. The prevailing sea conditions in the area compounded the migrants' already bad condition and towing the boat was going to result in a delay in the transfer of the rescued migrants to shore''.

Despite the migrants' predicament and need of urgent medical attention, the AFM still found the time to remove the boat's engine and to load it onto its patrol boat before torching the boat my client had in tow, thus losing precious time in the process! This, the AFM should tell to the marines.

A good number of our fishermen are now of the opinion that the AFM are trying to send them a subtle or not so subtle message, namely that they are not to get involved, that they are not to go near these immigrants, and, that should they spot any, they should turn a blind eye and not alert the Palace Signal Tower.