Asylum Seekers’ Hotline Holds Malta and EU Accountable For 12 Migrant Death, Says Country Coordinated Illegal ‘Push-Back’ To Libya
Asylum seekers’ hotline Alarm Phone is holding Maltese authorities accountable for failing to intervene and rescue a migrant boat that was fleeing Libya, resulting in twelve people losing their lives in Maltese waters.
Alarm Phone took to a press release to condemn Malta and the EU’s reaction to the news that 63 migrants were on a boat in distress in Malta’s Search and Rescue Zone; pointing the figure primarily at the Armed Forces of Malta who ‘chose to let twelve of them die of thirst and drowning, while also orchestrating the forced return of the survivors back to Libya.’
On the other hand, the Maltese government has denied any of these claims.
“All authorities have failed to intervene, using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to dramatically breach the law of the sea as well as human rights and refugee conventions. Though foremost the Armed Forces of Malta, all these authorities hold responsible for the death of twelve human beings and the suffering of dozens of others,” they said.
Last week, Malta declared its ports ‘unsafe’ amid the COVID-19 pandemic and stopped taking in vessels, effectively shutting its doors to migrants fleeing war-torn Libya.
“We hold these authorities to account for failing to intervene and rescue, as well as for proactively creating the conditions that allowed for this to occur.”
According to the hotline, Maltese authorities not only failed to act to save the migrants but proactively facilitated an illegal push-back of the people in distress from the Maltese SAR zone back to Libya.
???? We can now confirm that the boat returned to Libya today was the one with ~55 people we had searched for. 12 people died of thirst or drowned because Malta failed to rescue. Survivors were illegally pushed back to Libya where they will again suffer from torture and rape.
— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) April 15, 2020
Within their report, Alarm Phone also revealed a timeline of events including testimonies from migrants in distress which indicated that Maltese authorities ignored requests for help, eventually resulting in several deaths.
A survivor told us: “We shouted for help and made signs. Three people tried to swim to the big boat as it started moving away. They drowned. We made signs to the aircraft with the phones and we held the baby up to show we were in distress.”
— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) April 16, 2020
“We have gathered evidence based on our direct exchanges with the people in distress at sea and their relatives, as well as testimonies of survivors after their forced return to Libya. We have collected data on movements of state and non-state assets at sea and in the air. We have a plethora of documents detailing our communication with the Armed Forces of Malta, the Italian MRCC, the so-called Libyan coastguards and other European authorities, who either refused to intervene or acted illegally.”
You can read Alarm Phone’s full report here.
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