An Armed Forces of Malta rescue operation
which was originally meant to see a boatload of 53 illegal immigrants 88
nautical miles South of Malta reach Haywharf, took a different turn when the
P-61 offshore patrol vessel conducting the operation did not find the group but
encountered a second boatload in the area instead.
In a statement released earlier on Monday,
the AFM said that the group was reported to the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC)
at Luqa Barracks by an African resident in Malta on Monday at around 0600CEST.
The AFM Headquarters' Operations Centre immediately contacted the illegal
immigrants to confirm the received information, and subsequently a long-range
search Islander aircraft was sent to the location to positively identify the
drifting boatload of migrants.
The aerial-search effort was hampered by
poor visibility over the area. Due to the distances involved, and after
more than two hours on station overflying the boat, the Islander aircraft was
recalled back to base to refuel before again proceeding to the area later on
in the afternoon.
On its return at around 1615CEST, the
aircraft launched another search. Shortly afterwards, the patrol vessel also
began a surface search pattern. While visibility in the area had improved,
the sea state had worsened from a sea-state of force 4 to force 5.
After four hours of searching the area,
the Islander aircraft had to return to Malta for fuel and the aerial
portion of the search has been postponed until Tuesday morning. The P-61 remained
on station and continued the search for a number of hours throughout the
night, in the hope to re-establish contact with the migrants' 10-metre
drifting boat.
During the course of this mission the patrol vessel also started monitoring
the moves of another separate boat laden with 25 illegal immigrants. When the
boat capsized at around 2330CEST, AFM immediately sprung into action and
managed to save 24 of the illegal immigrants. Despite all efforts however, one
of the migrants was lost at sea.
This second boatload included 18 men and
6 women. Their nationalities are as yet unknown. P-61 returned to
its home-base at Haywharf, Floriana at 0525CEST earlier this morning.
In the
meantime, other AFM surface assets have maintained a constant vigil by
barrier patrols to the south western area of the Maltese islands.
Searches for the boatload of illegal immigrants the AFM had originally set
out to rescue will continue on Tuesday.
Read more about this issue on MaltaMedia's special feature: Lanċa
Ġejja u Ohra Sejra: Malta and its migrations.
