Emergency rescue hotline Alarm Phone on Monday said it had reached out to the Maltese authorities more than 40 times over a boat of migrants in distress, but had rarely received an information or feedback.
In a report detailing a migrant rescue operation, which is now the subject of an ongoing magisterial inquiry, the NGO details how it had reached out to Malta's rescue coordination centre 42 times between April 8 and April 10.
Despite their repeated efforts to get updated information, Alarm Phone said it had only heard back from the Maltese authorities 11 times "mostly without receiving any information”.
Magistrate Joe Mifsud is looking into the rescue of this particular group of migrants as well as allegations that the crew onboard an Armed Forces patrol boat had sabotaged the migrant's vessel.
Prompted by civil society group Repubblika, the inquiry later received fresh information that appears to contradict the claims of foul play by the AFM. The inquiry is ongoing.
Transcripts of migrant phone calls published
Meanwhile, Alarm Phone on Monday also published transcripts of two phone calls with the migrants while they had been in distress.
In the phone calls one migrant says that a member of the AFM appeared to have sabotaged their engine and told them that they would not be allowed to enter Malta. The migrant also claims that the AFM crew had told them they would be left to drown.
The following are the two transcripts of phone calls published on Monday;
Call 1:
Alarm Phone: “Hello, this is WatchTheMed Alarm Phone.”
Person on Boat: “Hello, hello, yesterday I call you. [Inaudible]. We need your help, we need your help. We have emergency Sir, we have emergency Sir. Now I see Malta, I see Malta. [Inaudible]. The Malta military, the Malta military is coming and cut the cable of electricity for the motor. And the Malta military knows that the water is in the boat right now, right now. He says, not that anybody come to Malta. He said that. And when he moved, he said I leave you, I leave you die in the water but nobody come to Malta. I will give you the location, my location, the location by GPS. [Inaudible]. Please please someone call help us.”
Alarm Phone: “What is our location right now?”
Person on Boat: “Okay okay yes. Hello Sir? North 35 degree, 39.454, East 014 degree, 12.817.”
Call 2:
Alarm Phone: “Hello, this is WatchTheMed Alarm Phone.”
Person on Boat: “Hello hello Sir, please take this number. The military of Malta want to take my phone.”
Alarm Phone: “They want to take your phone?”
Person on Boat: “Please help us, please help us. I call you one more time. Please help us, please help us. We will die, we will die in the water. Hello?”
Alarm Phone: “Yes, I can hear you, we are recording okay?”
Person on Boat: “Take this number, please, take this number and send ship to help us, please, come on.”
Alarm Phone: “Can you tell me the number of the ship that you see. Is it P51?”
Person on Boat: “[Inaudible]. You send someone to help us?”
Alarm Phone: “Can you tell us the number of the ship that you see, the military ship?”
Person on Boat: “Ok Ok [Inaudible]. Please, we will die, we will die in Maltese water.”
Alarm Phone: “We gave your position to the Maltese coastguards.”
Person on Boat: “Ok, the Malta military is [near?] us. The number P52. Please. We will die, we will die.”
Alarm Phone: “Your engine is no longer running, right?”
Person on Boat: “Ok, ok, the cable of motor, the Malta military cut the cable. Now now we have 5 days in the water and water in the boat right now. Please some of you help us. Please.”
Alarm Phone: “One more question, how far away, how far away is the military from you? How far away is the military boat?”
Person on Boat: “Ehm, ok, I don’t know but I see there two ships, two ships military of Malta. P52 and I don’t know the number of the other one.”
Alarm Phone: “Ok, does it look the same? Do the two ships look the same?”
Person on Boat: “Ok, we wanna help, we wanna help, we wanna help. We need your help, please, we will die.”
Alarm Phone: “Do the two ships look the same. Are they the same ship?”
Person on Boat: “Any any any ship will help us send to Europe, not back to Libya. Please please help us. Okay take this is the number of location.”
Alarm Phone: “The military ship. The military ship.”
Person on Boat: “Alan Kurdi or Sea-Watch or any ship. Please we want a life. North… north…”
Alarm Phone: “Can you please tell me if the two ships, do they look the same? The military ship?”
Person on Boat: “Okay okay okay, take this location… North 35 degree, 35.423.”
Alarm Phone: “35.423.”
Person on Boat: “Yes, again. North 35 degree, 35.423.”
Alarm Phone: “East? East?”
Person on Boat: “014 degree, 13.067.”
Alarm Phone: “014 degree, 13.067.”
Person on Boat: “Yeah yeah. The military of Malta [inaudible] my phone. Please, this, this.”
Alarm Phone: “Please keep your phone.”
Person on Boat: “Ok, send send send send anything. Please. Please help us, please help us.”
Alarm Phone: “We will try. We already alerted the Malta coastguard. Okay.”
Person on Boat: “[Inaudible]. You can you can say that… The military of Malta steals us. Okay?”
Alarm Phone: “One more question, okay? There are two ships. Two ships. Malta. Okay?”
Person on boat: “Please hurry up.”