MSF ‘shocked, outraged’ by Malta’s lack of action in its search and rescue area
Trouble is breaking out again in the high seas between Malta, Italy and Libya, with Doctors Without Borders saying it was “shocked” and “angry” by the lack of action by the Armed Forces of Malta in its search and rescue area this weekend.
Hundreds of people would have died if the international charity and two others had not intervened and saved lives when Malta failed to do so even though, according to the NGO, Malta had been informed of the situation all along but turned a blind eye.
“Once again we are shocked that the Armed Forces of Malta have neglected their legal obligation to coordinate these rescues and provide assistance, even though the relevant authorities were informed all the time.
Had it not been for the joint efforts of NGOs in less than one day, MSF says nearly 400 people could have died.
“The indifference and lack of coordination by the competent authorities is not acceptable,” he said.
The international charity, which sent a rescue vessel, the Geo Barents, to the central Mediterranean, reported a busy day on Friday, with 268 people rescued within four hours by four boats in difficulty to say that they were in the search and rescue of Malta. area. Those who were rescued were now safe on board the rescue vessel and are being looked after by the MSF team.
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders in English) took to Twitter to criticize the Maltese government’s lack of action in the face of the prospect of multiple deaths at sea in the region for which Malta is responsible.
“We are angry that the Armed Forces of Malta have neglected their legal obligation to coordinate rescues and provide assistance, even though the relevant authorities were informed from the first moment.”
MSF reported how on Friday evening, in complete darkness, its team first rescued 119 people, including seven minors, from a wooden boat following a distress alert sent by the humanitarian NGO Alarm Phone. They, too, are currently receiving “much needed care” from the MSF medical team.
This is in addition to the rescue of 82 other people, including four minors, who had left Libya on an overcrowded and unstable wooden boat.
“During the crossing,” said MSF, as the cramped boat was so crowded, “some people had no choice but to sit on the lower deck of the wooden boat, along with cans of fuel . These people could have died of fuel intoxication. We could have come across dead bodies if our team had not arrived in time.”
In another rescue that MSF said Malta was responsible for, 103 people including 22 children and a man and a man with a broken leg were rescued from a distressed wooden boat in international waters.
“Vulnerable persons are forced to flee in such dangerous conditions due to the lack of legal and safe alternatives. Everyone is now safe on board the Geo Barents and the team is being looked after,” MSF reported.
There are currently two other humanitarian vessels with hundreds of other irregular migrants rescued in international waters between Libya and Malta – SOS Méditerranée’s Ocean Viking with 234 on board and SOS Humanity’s Humanity 1, which is carrying 180 people saved on board. None of the ships, however, could make port anywhere nearby as of Sunday afternoon.
MSF’s Geo Barents was west of Malta and south of Sicily, Ocean Viking was west of Malta and south of Sicily and SOS Humanity was well north of Malta and in eastern Sicily with, between that time, hundreds of irregular migrants rescued on board needed to arrive. terra firma to receive proper care.
The developments come as Italy’s new right-wing government of Georgia Melloni is closing Italian ports, once again, to NGO rescue ships.
Matteo Salvini, now Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, said that the Italian ports will be closed again to NGO rescue ships, as happened when he was Minister of the Interior between 2018 and 2019, when there were major disputes between the Maltese and Italian governments regarding the responsibility for rescuing irregular migrants.
“A message to human traffickers and their accomplices: as we said in our electoral program, Italy will no longer tolerate the business of clandestine immigration and uncontrolled disembarkation,” warned Salvini on Twitter, under whose mandate the Italian ports now fall.
Referring to those aboard the Ocean Viking and Humanity 1, he said, “The first has a Norwegian flag while the second is German. Let the NGOs move to their country, not to Italy.”
Italy’s new Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi confirmed this weekend while speaking on Rai Uno’s ‘Porta a Porta’ that the flag states of the ships should be responsible to take rescued migrants, and not the nearest safe port of call according to international law.
This is the second time in as many weeks that Malta has attracted the ire and criticism of MSF.
On October 19, 23 people were sent to Egypt on instructions from the Malta Rescue Coordination Center after they had been at sea for four days in bad weather conditions and with very limited supplies of ‘ food and water, which led to accusations that Malta violated international law.
Phil joint statementfour NGOs – Alarm Phone, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Médecins Sans Frontières and SeaWatch – said, “The lack of clear guidance and the unnecessary delay in coordinating the rescue deliberately put the lives of the 23 people on board in ‘imminent risk’.