Malta sends rescued boat migrants to Egypt despite nearest port of call

International refugee charities and NGOs have accused the Maltese armed forces of having instructed a merchant ship carrying 23 rescued people, to disembark the people in Egypt rather than to the safest and nearest port of call.

Alarm Phone, Mediterranea Saving Humans, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Sea-Watch said that the people were sent to Egypt on 26 September 2022 on the instructions of the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) of Malta, after being rescued in the Maltese search and rescue region by the merchant vessel Shimanami Queen, which flies the Panama state flag.

At the time of the rescue, those on board the small boat had already been at sea for four days, in poor weather conditions and with very limited supplies of food and water.

“In line with maritime conventions, RCC Malta is legally responsible for coordinating any rescue operations in the event of an emergency or accident within its SAR region,” the NGOs said. “In this specific case, RCC Malta instructed merchant vessels in the immediate vicinity of the boat in distress either to continue their voyage or merely to stay on standby, therefore delaying the rescue significantly.”

Track of SHIMANAMI QUEEN from position of rescue to Port Said, Egypt

The NGOs said te lack of clear guidance and unnecessary delays in coordinating the rescue deliberately put the lives of the 23 people on board at imminent risk. “This is a common practice by the Maltese authorities to avoid having to engage in a rescue operation themselves and to prevent arrivals in Malta, as witnessed and documented in several cases by civil SAR organisations.”

The NGOs accused the RCC of using the delays to “enforce the hostile migration policies of Europe, and of Malta itself, by instructing the ship to take the rescued people to Egypt.”

They said Malta or Italy were the closest places of safety to the position where the 23 people were rescued, at 144 and 159 nautical miles respectively. Instead, the rescued people were forcibly taken 760 nautical miles to Egypt. Egypt is a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Convention, but the country also lacks an adequate national legal framework for the protection of refugees and asylum seekers.

“As organisations engaging in SAR activities at sea, we denounce the forcible transfer of these 23 people to Egypt and call for consequences to Malta’s blatant violations of maritime and international law,” the NGOs said.