Updated: 9:46pm

Forty asylum seekers on board a boat in Malta's search and rescue zone is in desperate need of rescuing, an emergency rescue hotline said on Saturday.

In its latest tweet at 9.00pm, Alarm Phone said it had lost contact with the group and were "very concerned about their fate".

"Malta who is responsible is not giving info. They treat lives and distress of people as state secret.This is unacceptable," the NGO wrote.

Earler during the day Alarm Phone tweeted that the group had run out of food and water and had urged the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) "to do its duty and rescue them".

"We spoke to the group in distress again! They are in Maltese SAR zone. They tell us, they don't have any water or food and are really exhausted," the NGO wrote.

This week Alarm Phone flagged a number of other boats in distress in Malta's SAR zone.

Out of the four, two were rescued, one disappeared, and one other carrying 45 people is still in need of rescuing, with Alarm phone warning that the desperate group had been abandoned for 50 hours already.

?️ The people are so desperate & are left abandoned by state actors aka #Malta since 50 hours already. The SeaGalaxy left as well. Several worried relatives are calling us - wondering, if this is humanity in #Europe?Together with them we demand: Don't forget them at sea!

— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) July 30, 2022 "

Times of Malta tried to contact AFM, but was unable to get through.

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