Three asylum seekers airlifted to Malta for medical treatment

AFM helicopter airlifts three people to Malta for urgent medical treatment 

Three asylum seekers, two women and a man, have been airlifted to Malta for urgent medical treatment.

Upon receiving a request for assistance by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome, the Armed Forces of Malta dispatched a helicopter to a vessel that has been deployed in the Mediterranean as part of the EU’s Operation Sophia to combat human smuggling.

The three people were finally transferred to Mater Dei by ambulance.

The AFM’s statement was short of details and did not give details of the operation or the three people, instead referring to them merely as “migrants”.

A massive rescue operation is currently underway in the Mediterranean and 1,800 people were rescued from 10 separate vessels on Wednesday alone.

However, Italy’s coastguard said that 34 people, including young children, drowned during the operation after an overcrowded boat carrying about 500 people capsized and sent 200 people into the water.