The emergency services received over 380,000 calls on the 112 number last year, but more than 300,000 of them were not "genuine".

Marking the European 112 Day on Tuesday during an event held at the Fgura primary school, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said that the emergency lines received a total of 382,747 calls in 2019. 

The vast majority (79% – 302,986 calls), however, were deemed by those manning the line as either a hoax, a call by someone dialling the wrong number or else no voice was heard. A number of these calls also involved reports that had already been made by another caller. 

The 112 emergency number is manned by the police but the task of addressing calls is shared with the army, the civil protection department as well as the ambulance service. 

Representatives from the different units that are called in through the 112 line were at the school during the event to meet with the students and explain their roles to them. 

The Home Affairs Minister said the high number of such calls served as proof that more needed to be done to raise awareness on how to use the line as well as when to call elsewhere.

“Abuse of this line is mainly a result of lack of knowledge and that is why it is important to educate on this,” Dr Camilleri said. 

Of the genuine calls, the majority were for medical assistance, with the call centre taking some 56,000 such calls. 

The government will also be updating its 112 mobile application in order to make it easier for people to request assistance. The update, the minister said, will include a feature that will allow the person who needs help to be tracked via the GPS on his phone. This would be especially useful for those unable to explain their exact location to the responders. 

On his part, Education Minister Owen Bonnici, who also attended the event, said that awareness-raising activities were crucial to help educate young children.

“By the time children leave school, they would have spent 100 months of formal learning and so we think that these exposures are crucial,” he said.

Dr Bonnici added that such events also helped children learn about the different career paths they could take in the future.  

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