Lampedusa tragedy | Armed Forces bring in 147 survivors, death toll could reach 50

The Maltese armed forces' patrol boat P-61 brought 147 shipwrecked asylum seekers, after a 10-hour journey from where tragedy struck at a point 61 nautical miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Italian reports from state news agency ANSA said that as many as 50 migrants could be dead from a total of 250 migrants, including Syrians and Palestinians, who set out of Libya to make the treacherous Mediterranean crossing.

The Armed Forces of Malta have collected four dead bodies, comprising an adult woman, an 11-year-old, and two toddlers. Current figures of the dead are believed to now total 34. A home affairs spokesperson told MaltaToday that just after 2pm, an AFM aircraft surveiling the sea, spotted the dead body of a three-year old toddler which will be brought in to Malta.

Family and social solidarity minister Marie Louise Coleiro Preca visited the Syrian and Palestinian migrants and assessed the situation as they landed at Hay Wharf.

Moreover, Malta and Italy are looking into whether any families who were aboard the boat were divided when the migrants were taken to Malta and Lampedusa. The authorities of the two countries are in constant contact and efforts are underway to reunite any families which were possibly divided yesterday during the rescue operations.

The Maltese prime minister was in contact with his Italian counterpart Enrico Letter yesterday evening, to demand a joint call for action from the EU over the migrants' crossings.

This was the second tragedy in as many as 10 days, the first taking place off Lampedusa and leaving over 200 dead.

"This latest humanitarian tragedy shows more than ever the need for action, not words," Muscat said yesterday. "This is not a wake-up call for the European Union. We've gone beyond that."

Muscat and Letta will raised irregular migration on the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of the European Council but both Prime Ministers are saying they want to see "concrete action".

"I won't be satisfied with words alone," Muscat said.

Muscat said he was taking note of comments from EU home affairs commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, of the need for migrants to have legal ways of reaching  Europe, and the need  for Libya and Tunisia to ensure that traffic didn't leave from their shores.

"This is not a Maltese or an Italian problem but a European problem. Malta is doing its job and has saved people from a sure death and that was why he considered the Armed Forces of Malta as both Malta's heroes and Europe's heroes."

On her part, Malmström yesterday said the horrible events of yesterday night raised yet again the urgency of a wide Frontex search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to Spain, to better detect and assist boats in distress. "I reiterate my call to all EU Member States to quickly make available the necessary resources to allow Frontex to define the details of such an operation."

Watch MaltaToday.com.mt editor Matthew Vella talking to CTV News Channel on the tragedy here.

Other voices

Green party chairperson Arnold Cassola said that Muscat's first brush with a migrants' tragedy on his doorstep had toned down the belligerence of his tone upon assuming power.

"After witnessing first-hand what dead migrants mean, the prime minister gets a reality check and instead of playing the populistic macho, does the right and talks politics," Cassola said, in a reference to a thwarthed pushback of asylum seekers to Libya in June.

"There must be changes to the Dublin II rules. Bravo prime minister, but the time for words is over him him too - we greens have persuaded our European family that Dublin had to change ages ago. Now follow us. Persuade your socialist prime minsters to unanimously vote to change Dublin II. Anything less is useless blabber," Cassola said.

The Dublin II Convention is a framework of laws that returns asylum seekers to their original point of entry into the EU, which places an additional burden on southern and eastern countries like Malta, Italy and Greece.

Rescue operation

Malta's Armed Forces discovered the boat in difficulty in the search and rescue area of Malta at 4pm. The boat overturned soon after. An AFM B200 aircraft threw a liferaft to begin the rescue operation.

The AFM and Italian rescue services then proceeded in a joint action. The Italian rescue services saved 56 people, including  nine children. The AFM saved 146 people, including 14 children. In addition the AFM recovered the bodies of four people, including three children. Another 27 people are presumed dead.

An Italian doctor was on board the Maltese rescue boat, with Mater Dei Hospital on full alert due to the fact that some of the migrants were feared might not even survive the journey. The mortuary at the former general hospital, St Luke's Hospital was prepared in case capacity at Mater Dei was exceeded.

The Maltese and Italian forces are still trying to recover corpses from the sea.