[WATCH] Armed Forces attempted pushback before directing migrants to Pozzallo

Survivors from a group of 101 people who left Libya on 8 April 2020 and finally being taken into quarantine in Pozzallo on 12 April, have alleged that the Maltese armed forces attempted to push them back to Libya and refused to allow them passage into Maltese territorial waters.

The NGO Alarm Phone, a migrant rescue hotline charity, spoke to survivors from the boat, who said they had Malta in their sight in the morning of 11 April when they were approached by Maltese army vessels.

Eventually, the AFM gave the boat fuel, a new engine, and directed it to Pozzallo, Sicily.

First, a white - yet unidentified vessel - was said to have approached their boat to distribute life vests before vanishing again.

“The third day in the morning, around 5am in the morning, when the sun started rising, we saw Malta, we saw the buildings of Malta. Everyone was happy and yelling and we said we reached Malta,” one survivor - Survivor A - was reported by Alarm Phone as saying.

“We were arriving until a vessel found us. A commercial vessel it seems, Turkish one. Written Turkya on it. It had a red flag with a moon and star (…). He said hello to us with a microphone. He told us you arrived to Malta’s zone, where do you want to go? He went down to a small boat and came to us until our boat, said hello and said this town is Malta and this exact city is called Marsa. Keep going for a distance of 30 minutes and you will find yourselves in Marsa and go turn yourselves in. We asked him, is it possible you take us onboard and accompany us? He said, no I can’t, I have a commercial vessel. Anyways, he went back with his small boat to his vessel and went away. And we were standing by, we didn’t move. 

One of the dinghies of the 101 people that arrived in Pozzallo. The boats reached Lampedusa, Linosa and Pantelleria

“Then another vessel came, its colour was white. They gave us red life vests. He asked us how many people we were, we counted and told him we were 101. He said ok and gave us life vests, one by one. Without talking to us at all.”

After the white boat departed, an AFM vessel approached them - an inshore interceptor P02, which is visible in video footage.

According to the survivors, the AFM officers requested their satellite phone into which the officers inserted a GPS location for Libya. The phone was handed back to the people in distress and they were requested to return to Libya.

Alarm Phone: That video was taken when you were very close to Marsa?

Survivor A: Yes. When we arrived to Marsa, a small plastic vessel came to us. It’s like our vessel but that one was small.

Alarm Phone: That was the vessel from the video?

Survivor A: Yes, this happened just before the video. We find ourselves, our fuel was over and we still were in a distance of 30 minutes from the city. They told us, ‘give us your GPS and your Thuraya phone’. We gave them the Thuraya phone. They told us ‘give us your GPS’, we gave them the GPS. They changed the configurations from Malta so we go back to Libya. They told us go back to Libya and configured the GPS. 

Photo: Alarm Phone

The survivors claimed that the AFM officers threatened them and tried to force them to turn around and head back south.

“Frightened by these actions and seeking to enforce rescue by the Maltese military, several people jumped into the sea, risking their lives, though fortunately wearing life vests,” Alarm Phone said.

A video published by Alarm Phone claims to show the AFM carrying out “dangerous” manoeuvres close to people in the water.

Survivor A said the AFM’s manoeuvres were intended at stopping them from swimming to the shore. “They were around 20 or 25 people jumping in the water almost drowning. When they saw us like this, they gave us ropes and told us to hold on to the ropes and tight it to your boat and go back to your boat. We won’t make you go back to Libya. We told them no you will return us to Libya, we will not move. Then, a big vessel came, a big one. The colour of this vessel is grey. Between grey and white with Malta flag.”

According to survivor testimonies, a second AFM vessel arrived at the scene. “An officer informed the distressed that Malta was infected by the virus and unable to accept more people. A survivor reported that the Maltese forces threatened them even by pointing with several guns at them,” Alarm Phone said.

Survivor A: They came to us and a man was talking to us. A tall man, wearing black clothes. He said, ‘Malta has a virus called corona if you heard about it. We can’t take you there, everyone is sick in Malta. And Malta is small and can’t take all of you.’ When we didn’t go back to our boat, they saw that we didn’t want to go on the vessel. 3 people of them wear the tools of police and arms around and attached to their belts they put with clashs [rifles] and guns. They stand up in front of us up on their vessel. On the balcony of the high vessel. They stood up there and put up their arms and told us we give you 30 minute.

Alarm Phone: You mean, they threatened you with their arms?

Survivor A: Yes they had arms, three ‘clashs’ and three guns. The guns were tight to their arms and the ‘clashs’ were in their hands. When they put their arms up, we got scared. We took the ropes and got back to our boat. They distributed water to us, 35 small bottles of water of quarter of a litre, 250ml.

Survivor B: They just raised their guns to scare us and didn’t shoot us. We were very tired, but they told us to go back…They wouldn’t let us in, but we were all tired of being at sea. 

The Maltese forces are then said to have tied ropes to the rubber boat to pull it, which led to the engine breaking. An air asset was allegedly present at the scene which could have come from the the direction of Malta.

At 11am, the AFM then was said to have provided five gallons of petrol and an engine, but inserted GPS coordinates into the satellite phone and instructed them to continue their journey to Italy.

At 2pm, one of the survivors reports, the AFM officer said: “Ok we made a decision we won’t return you to Libya’. All of us were happy and yelling ‘Allah Akbar’. They told us ‘we will show you the route until Italy’. We said ‘no we don’t have fuel’. They said ‘ok we will give you fuel’. They gave us 5 gallons, 40 litres. They told us ‘take these’. The gallons colour was black and something was written on it in English. They gave it to us. We took it.”

“They gave us an engine 45 or 40 Yamaha. After they gave us the engine, we attached it and we put the fuel and they gave us a compass in a wooden box. They told us there two zeros, when the arrow is directed to the two zeros, go that way until you find yourselves in a city in Italy. We said ok. At that time, we started moving and the sun went down, it was around 5 or 6pm. We kept moving until the next day around 10am in the morning we arrived to Italy.”

Then an AFM vessel - an orange vessel, not yet identified - accompanied them in the direction of Sicily before eventually leaving the scene.

Survivor B: Then the big boat came to us, and told us ‘come behind me, follow me’. We left Malta on our left, and we were on its right, so we didn’t enter Malta. We saw the lights of Malta, and they said come behind us, come behind us, but don’t go in Malta. We went behind him for 12 hours, the whole night. From 6:00 in the afternoon until 6:00 in the morning. They gave us fuel. And early in the morning they told us to always go straight ahead, ‘don’t go this way or that way’. It left us at sea and he left. Then we went until we got to Italy. There was no one who helped us until we got to Italy…

Survivor C: There was a guy that told us there are so many people in the Mediterranean sea and I would like to take you to Italia, if you can follow me, – he says, we do not have any protection for the corona virus on this ship, so you have to follow me from behind. They told us ‘I was sent by the government, so I was saving the life of the people in the Mediterranean sea, I can’t kill you and I can’t torture you, I am not threatening you but if you can follow me up to Italia I will save your lives’, he told us to follow them. We follow them during the night at around 6 like that. They took us up to the Italia, and early in the morning, after we reached Italia they told (us) Italia is not far away from here, Italia is there, so they told us Italy is there, go ahead, we go back to the Malta. They told us we can’t push you up to Italia, he means to the port, so we will going to return to our country, so Italy is there so go and enter. 

The 101 people arrived at Pozzallo harbour on 12 April 2020 and were taken into quarantine.