AFM denies Italian media report claiming it pushed migrants away

The Armed Forces of Malta has denied a report in Italian newspaper Il Giornale, claiming allegations that it refueled a migrant vessel and then pointed in the direction of Italy were “completely unfounded.”

The Milan newspaper claimed that a boat carrying 279 migrants, including 66 women and 31 children and a newborn of 20 days, was directed to Pozzallo by the Maltese armed forces, while being monitored by two Maltese patrol boats.

The newspaper says migrants rescued from the boat said they were moving in Malta’s direction, but alleged members of the AFM provide the migrants with water and biscuits “and drove us into Italian territorial waters.”

On Thursday 14 August, 279 migrants on a boat that had departed from Libya were brought ashore near Ragusa in southeast Sicily, while on Friday, 212 were rescued from another boat and brought ashore off Reggio Calabria at the toe of mainland Italy and another 1,004 arrived at the port of Naples.

The Armed Forces rejected the claims. “The AFM have always acted professionally, including in this particular case. The AFM has always followed its search and rescue obligations. In this case, migrants repeatedly refused to be transferred onto Maltese patrol vessels. The AFM still provided the necessary safety precautions, including that of remaining in close vicinity in order to render assistance should the need arise,” spokesperson Lt Keith Caruana said.

“There is a very good relationship between the Rescue Coordination Centres of Malta and Italy which results in thousands of lives being saved,” he added.

Following the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck, the Italian government decided to strengthen the national system for the patrolling of the Mediterranean sea by authorising the Mare Nostrum military and humanitarian operation to rescue migrants and arrest human traffickers.

Italy says the total of boat migrants who had arrived this year now stood at 101,480.

The operation patrolling the waters between Africa and Sicily began after 366 people drowned when their boat capsized just a mile from the Italian coast. That tragedy focused international attention on the desperate risks taken by many migrants who leave the shores of north Africa, mainly from chaotic Libya, in unseaworthy boats and die in their hundreds.

Over the past year, most of the migrants have been refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war and Eritrea’s harsh military service, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

The UNHCR estimated last month that around 800 boat migrants had died in the Mediterranean so far this year, compared with 600 in the whole of 2013 and 500 in 2012.