100 ‘Exhausted’ Migrants Adrift In Maltese SAR Zone After Boat Engine Stopped, NGO Warns
Around 100 people are currently adrift in Malta’s Search and Rescue Zone (SAR) and in need of rescue, international migrant watchdog NGO Alarm Phone has warned.
Issuing an SOS on Twitter, the watchdog said it had alerted authorities over the dangerous situation yesterday afternoon.
“Up to now there is no rescue in sight. The engine stopped working and people are exhausted as they ran out of water and food. We demand immediate rescue!” they said alongside an image of the location of the vessel.
🆘️ ~100 people adrift in #Malta SAR!
We were alerted by ~100 people in distress and informed authorities 4 hours ago. Up to now there is no rescue in sight. The engine stopped working and people are exhausted as they ran out of water and food.
We demand immediate rescue! pic.twitter.com/Z6apIV8Ijk— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) June 13, 2021
With no food or water, and an engine that was not functioning, the people are in dire need of help, the watchdog urged, calling for an immediate rescue plan.
Questions sent by Lovin Malta to authorities over this vessel have remained unanswered at time of publishing.
It is believed that around 2,000 people were aboard vessels on perilous journeys into Europe over the weekend, an Alarm Phone activist said.
Malta remains on the forefront of a migration crisis seeing people from Africa and the Middle East entering Europe.
Last April, three boats carrying 270 migrants in the vicinity of Malta’s Search and Rescue (SAR) zone disembarked in Lampedusa.
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