The government is refusing to say how many people were rescued in Maltese search-and-rescue waters, and how many were brought ashore or taken to Libya, despite being challenged in parliament four times in a month.

PN MP Therese Comodini Cachia is seeking answers to understand if there have been any human rights or international law violations in Maltese waters.

For some weeks now, she has been asking Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri for the number of search-and-rescue operations by the Armed Forces between 2019 and 2021, and how many people were rescued each time.

She also asked how many rescued people were brought to Malta, taken to Libya or to Italy over this same period.

A third parliamentary question tabled by Comodini Cachia requests information on how many AFM rescue operations did not involve Malta’s Armed Forces vessels.

All three questions were first tabled on January 19 and have remained unanswered.

Comodini Cachia tabled them another three times and was prepared to ask Speaker Anġlu Farrugia for a ruling requesting a reply from Camilleri.

However, this is now not possible since parliament has been dissolved.

'People are dying in our sea'

“It is unacceptable that the minister refuses to explain what is happening in Malta’s search and rescue zone. People are dying in our sea, and it is important that no one turns a blind eye to the plight of persons seeking refuge,” she said.

“It is the minister’s responsibility to ensure that the rights of persons crossing our sea are safeguarded and to answer for all actions taken in this regard.

“It is also the minister’s obligation to answer to parliamentary scrutiny.”

Over the past months there have been several claims of Malta’s failure to assist migrants at risk, and in Easter 2020 the island was involved in a controversial operation to return people to war-torn Libya.

It later emerged that a boat had picked them up in Maltese waters and returned them to Libya after being commissioned by Maltese authorities to provide ‘help’.

Last week, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights warned that the decrease in Malta’s search-and-rescue efforts over the past few years, together with its reported failure to assist migrants rescued by NGO ships and its restrictive disembarkation policies, continue to pose significant risks to human rights – including the right to life – of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in the central Mediterranean.

In September, the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency separately flagged Malta’s “intensified efforts” to stop asylum seekers from disembarking on the island during the pandemic.

And around a year ago, the UN Human Rights Committee found Malta was primarily responsible for the rescuing of 200 people, including 60 children, who had drowned in 2013, while Italy had failed to protect their right to life.

The October 2013 incident had seen the AFM scrambling to rescue 143 migrants, while another 56 people were taken to the island of Lampedusa.

The boat, carrying 400 Syrians and Palestinians, had capsized after taking in water south of Lampedusa and soon after, Tineke Strik, the rapporteur of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly had called for an investigation into alleged delays in the rescue operation.

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