There were fears for two migrants' boats drifting in Malta’s search and rescue area on Wednesday as emergency hotline Alarmphone said it had lost contact with both. A number of children were in one of the boats.

“We lost contact with both boats many hours ago and can only hope those on board are alive and in a safe place,”  a spokesperson of the NGO said.

One of the boats, with 20 aboard including a baby, children and a pregnant woman, last made contact at night after being at sea for two days.

“They told us they had 10 children with them. We could hear a lot of shouting and screaming in the background, also from a baby. A pregnant woman was in a bad condition. We have not heard from them since,” the spokesperson said.

She said the NGO had passed on all the details to the Armed Forces of Malta and was hoping they would be located immediately.

Another vessel carrying 88 people also dropped off the radar on Tuesday.

The boat was last known to be drifting towards Lampedusa, after a night in Malta’s SAR.

“The Italian authorities haven’t given us any information. There were arrivals in Lampedusa, but we don’t know if this boat was among them,” the spokesperson said.

A year after the Easter tragedy last year, which ended in a number of deaths after a prolonged standoff and a pushback, she hoped some lessons would have been learnt.

Last April, asylum seekers aboard a number of boats in Maltese SAR were left pleading for their lives when the authorities closed the borders due to the pandemic. The incident had ended with five persons dead and seven missing. A Maltese commercial vessel took surviving migrants back to Libya.

“I expected that authorities would have learned that saving lives and transparency is the duty not only of civil society,” she pointed out.