Updated 1.53pm with PN statement.

A fishing boat crowded with 400 migrants was being escorted to safety by an Italian coast guard vessel on Tuesday morning after drifting for days between Malta, Italy and Greece and reportedly taking in water.

An NGO claimed on Monday that two merchant vessels had been told by Malta to supply the fishing boat with fuel, but not to conduct a rescue.

But the AFM, which replied to questions on Tuesday, said written communication from the ship captain who assisted the boat confirmed that no rescue was requested by the people on board.

The AFM said it fulfilled its obligations and carried out coordination in accordance with the applicable international laws and conventions, including the duty of care towards vessels sailing in international waters within Malta’s Search and Rescue Region (SRR).

"Reports concerning migrants in Malta’s SRR are followed up immediately, and vessels which are not in distress are monitored accordingly. Moreover, written communication received by the AFM from the ship captain providing duty of care confirms that no rescue was requested by the people on board."  

The fishing boat is believed to have set off from Tobruk late last week, and its presence at sea was first reported by the Alarm Phone NGO last on Saturday.

On Sunday, Sea Watch International said its spotter plane had found the boat, with 400 people in distress. 

It said that two merchant ships were located nearby but they had been ordered not to carry out a rescue. 

By Monday morning, a merchant ship had provided the boat with fuel and supplies of water, the NGO confirmed, but said it had “not rescued it following orders from Malta." 

“Currently, the boat is struggling with 1.5m waves, a huge danger,” it added, and called for EU action to rescue the migrants. 

"Malta must be held accountable for the ruthless ignorance. Preventing the rescue of people for political calculation must be punished!" it insisted. 

At one time Alarm Phone reported that the people on the boat were in panic, with some of them jumping overboard.

Early on Tuesday it said people on board had confirmed that vessels of the Italian coastguard were accompanying them in bad weather conditions.

“The people are reassured by the presence of the rescue assets, and we hope that they will soon all be safe,” the NGO said.  

By mid-morning on Tuesday the boat was East of Sicily, but Alarm Phone said the situation on board was still dramatic, with several medical emergencies, water filling the vessel and no fuel left. 

The Italian coast guard confirmed its involvement in the rescue and said it was also involved in the rescue of another boat, carrying 800 migrants, 120 miles south-east of Syracuse. 

PN: The government needs to explain

In a statement, the Nationalist Party said it deplored the government's attitude. At a time when the government and the PL were in crisis, Robert Abela, in a bid to draw sympathy from a few, was ready to refuse to assist irregular migrants in distress despite international obligations, spokespersons Beppe Fenech Adami (Home Affairs) and Graziella Attard Previ (Equality) said. 

"The government cannot take unilateral decisions when lives are at risk," they said. 

The challenges of migration would not be solved by staying silent, indifferent or by turning a bling eye. Nor did the solution lie in leaving innocent people in danger simply to make a political point. 

While the European Union should support Malta, the Maltese government should always safeguard people's lives.

Furthermore the government was sending a conflicting message when it said Malta was too small for migrants, but had then promoted a policy based on attracting thousands of foreign workers, the two MPs said.