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Who And Why? Maltese Newspaper Ad Asks Nation To Help Investigate ‘Crime’ That Led To Six Migrants’ Death

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After six people onboard a migrant boat in distress near Malta’s Search and Rescue zone lost their lives over a month ago, a German aid charity is asking the general public to help investigate the alleged crime that sparked the tragic event.

In an ad published on today’s edition of the Times of Malta, Space-Eye e.V. shared the photos of the six dead migrants, along with what reportedly happened aboard the boat they were in.

“People of Malta, help to investigate a crime,” the ad reads.

The incident happened between the 8th and 9th April, when the boat, which was carrying 66 refugees, sent out a distress signal close to Malta’s SAR. After allegedly taking about 41 hours for a Maltese P52 military patrol boat to be dispatched and reach the migrant boat, things seem to have taken a turn for the worse.

“Maltese soldiers boarded it and it has been alleged that one of the soldiers severed the electrical cable from the motor, disabling the refugees’ boat,” the ad continues. “According to the migrants’ account, the soldier told them at the time: ‘I leave you die in the water but nobody come to Malta’.”

Sometime later, the Maltese coastguard arrived, instead taking the boat back to Libya. Six men – Hdru Yemane, Filimon Bashay, Omer Seid, Huruy Yohannes, Mogos Tesfamichael and Debesay Rusom – did not survive. The whole ordeal was later dubbed by many, including Malta’s Archbishop Scicluna, the Easter Monday Tragedy.

Space-Eve. e.V. now has three questions, and is asking the general public to help answer them.

The German aid charity is seeking to answer three simple questions: who sent the first P52 military patrol boat, who ordered the onboard cable to be cut (and, of course, if true, which soldier did it), and who ordered the second patrol boat to take the asylum seekers back to Libya, “a country where they face danger of persecution”.

People are being asked to submit any information they might have to Space-Eye’s confidential inbox.

Featured Image: Stock Photo by Frank Vincentz

What do you make of this case? Do you believe there was any foul play involved?

READ NEXT: Here Are The Faces Of Six Men Who Died Onboard A Migrant Vessel Denied Safe Entry To Malta

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).

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