‘We Demand A Public Inquiry’: NGO Asks For ‘Accountability’ On Death Of Five Migrants In Maltese Waters
Search and Rescue (SAR) Malta is calling for a “comprehensive and public inquiry” into the death of five migrants in Maltese waters after a boat capsized during an Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) rescue operation.
The NGO noted that this tragedy, “adds five more souls to the 2,500 people who drowned crossing the Mediterranean in 2023.”
On 23rd February, a vessel carrying an estimated 34 passengers from Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia, and Eritrea overturned during an AFM rescue mission about 5.63 kilometres off the coast of Malta. Five individuals lost their lives, and eight sustained injuries, including a pregnant woman, according to SAR – these individuals were taken to hospital for medical treatment.
“The people in distress in Malta’s territorial waters were seeking a better life and a safe haven,” SAR remarked, stating that “they had a right to timely rescue.”
Twenty-one of the survivors, some of whom had witnessed their loved ones drown, were promptly detained in Malta’s Ħal Far detention centre, which according to SAR is “a far cry from an appropriate place for the necessary psychological support and care.”
NGOs Aditus Foundation and Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Malta stated that they are “further upset by Malta’s treatment of the survivors.”
The organisations are thus urging authorities to offer them the necessary psychological support, which “cannot be provided in detention but requires a safe and caring space.”
“This is an opportunity for Malta to do what is right,” the NGOs affirmed.
SAR’s demands go above and beyond those of Aditus Foundation and JRS, with the organisation demanding not only the migrants’ “immediate” release from detention so they may receive the necessary support, but they are also demanding that the Maltese authorities “carry out a comprehensive and public inquiry in a timely manner under the Inquiries Act.”
While SAR acknowledged that the Maltese authorities deployed a rescue mission, “as is their responsibility under international law throughout Malta’s search and rescue zone,” the NGO added that it has several unanswered questions on the incident “which need to be investigated urgently and communicated to the public and bereaved relatives in the interest of transparency and accountability.”
The organisation posed a set of qualms as to how the rescue operation was conducted, namely questioning its timing and why the distressed migrants were not rescued earlier, whether standard search and rescue procedures were followed, and whether the failure to save the five deceased migrants is a byproduct of the country’s “ongoing failure to rescue within its wider search and rescue zone”.
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