by di-ve.com - editorial@di-ve.com
Local News -- 17 April 2009 -- 18:10CEST

The migrants were in 2 boatloads, and were picked up on Thursday afternoon by the Pinar E, a Panama-flagged, Turkish-owned cargo ship which was heading towards the Tunisian port of Sfax, in a location within Malta’s search-and-rescue region.

A corpse was sighted in the water near the one of the migrants’ boats. In all, 154 migrants were rescued, including a pregnant woman, 25 injured individuals and 7 in need of urgent medical aid. The ship reported that they were all in need of food and water.

The Armed Forces of Malta’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Malta) informed the Pinar E that if the migrants were deemed to be in distress, it was bound by international obligations to render assistance and to convey the rescued persons to the nearest safe haven, which in this case was Lampedusa. The Pinar E crew determined that this was the case, and headed towards the Italian island.

Italian authorities, however, informed RCC Malta that since the rescue occurred in Malta’s SAR region, the rescued migrants were to head towards Malta. Soon afterwards, they instructed the Pinar E not to enter Italian territorial waters, and that an Italian naval vessel was being dispatched to ensure this.

The ship reiterated that they had injured migrants on board, and requested medical supplies. The Italian authorities provided medical supplies to the merchant vessel, which was once again directed to proceed to Malta. The Pinar E, however, said that it would still proceed to Lampedusa, noting that medical assistance was also required.

The vessel was then directed to a position 24 nautical miles south west of Lampedusa, to receive a doctor via an Italian navy corvette.

Inclement weather over Thursday night prevented the transfer operation to take place, and the corvette maintained their distance. A doctor was winch-hoisted onto the merchant vessel at around 1200h on Friday. 
 

Meanwhile, in a press statement, the government said that it is apparent that the Italian Minister for the Interior is not being correctly informed by his officials. 

It emphasised that Malta has always honoured its international obligations in accordance with international law. 

“Malta has always co-ordinated the search and rescue operations, carried out within the Search and Rescue Area falling under its responsibility, in strict adherence of its obligations, namely that it coordinates maritime search and rescue operations and that rescued persons are to be disembarked at the nearest safe port.” 

The government said that Minister Maroni seems to be mixing up the obligations that a State has to coordinate search and rescue operations within its Search and Rescue Region with the obligation that a State has in rendering assistance to a vessel in distress.  Such obligation is not related at all to the Search and Rescue Region.    

“The Maltese Government would like to reiterate that Malta is abiding by the international law as applicable to Malta. It will continue to abide by these international obligations to the full, but cannot and will not carry burdens that are clearly not its own.”