Relatives of migrants who died at sea ask AG to send back P52 inquiry for more investigations

The relatives of two migrants who lost their lives at sea during a rescue operation in April are request that Attorney General Peter Grech send back for further investigation a magesterial inquiry which was concluded on the incident.

The request is coming from two family members of two migrants who died at sea during a rescue operation which involved a commercial vessel flying a Libyan flag. Five persons were confirmed dead and seven other missing in the incident, while 51 surving passengers were returned to Libya.

Last week, a court, presided over by magistrate Joe Mifsud, found no grounds for criminal action against Prime Minister Robert Abela, AFM commander Jeffrey Curmi or the crew of the army's P52 patrol vessel, in an inquiry following a report filed by NGO Repubblika.

The NGO had accused the AFM of sabotaging a vessel which was carrying the migrants at sea in the rescue operation which happened a few days after Easter. It also accused Abela and Curmi of homicide of the migrants.

On Saturday, Fthawi Tesfamichael Welday and Asfaha Letenugus Amelesom, both Eritrean nationals living in the Netherlands and Sweden respectively - who are the brother and sister of Mogos Tesfamichael Welday and Filimon Mengsteab Ghebremedhin, two of the migrants who died during the rescue operation - filed a request for the AG send back the acts of the magesterial inquiry for more investigation.

The request, which was filed by lawyer Paul Borg Olivier on behalf of the migrants' family, is similar but separate to another request filed by Repubblika yesterday, where it also asked the AG to send back the P52 probe.

The family members' requests notes that while the inquiry was 419 pages long, "the scope of such extensive volume was nothing more than to give a false impression of a thorough investigation." 

"The report lacks legal substance, is void of reference to crucial material evidence at hand and abdicates, in part, of the Magistrate’s duty to collect and preserve further evidence related to the complaints filed by Repubblika."

The request says that in the inquiry, "there is ample proof, by one’s own admission that a pushback was organised by the AFM and the OPM with third party vessels acting as 'agents of the state'."

"The deposition of Jeffrey Curmi is incriminating, to say the least. Incriminating, at least as far as the pushback is concerned in full breach of International Treaty obligations, even though the Magistrate refers to this as a 'successful mission'."

"The magistrate shifts the blame completely on the traffickers to exonerate Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi and the OPM from responsibility."

The family members also flagged a number of shortcomings in the inquiry, including that no effort was made by the magistrate to see what directions and protocols were given to the agents of the state during the rescue operation and that no instructions appear in the acts as to the identification of the deceased migrants, by their fellows on board the dinghy, or by photographic means from the agents of the state.