Law & Order
Another 26 illegal immigrants reach Malta
By MaltaMedia News
May 23, 2007 - 6:30:03 PM

Another group of 26 illegal immigrants arrived in Malta after 53 reached the island in less than 12 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday evening's group of illegal immigrants, consisting of 25 men and one woman,  brought the total number of arrivals since Tuesday evening to 79. The group was brought ashore by the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) at around 1845CEST.

On Tuesday night at around 2100CEST, 21 men, two women and one girl, reached Birżebbuġia shore, followed by the arrival of another 29 men at Bengħajsa on Wednesday at around 0800CEST.

The total number of illegal immigrants that reached Malta since the beginning of this year stands at 156.

On the other hand  uncertainty continues to surround the fate of 53 illegal immigrants whose vessel went missing after making a distress call saying it might sink on Monday. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokeswoman in Malta Laura Boldrini was cited by Italy's ANSA news agency as saying that the searches should resume forthwith and be stepped up.

"A boat cannot just disappear like that, we have to do all that is possible to save the lives of 53 people," she said.

According to Agence France-Pressse, the UNHCR's office in Italy was in touch with people close to some of the passengers who raised alarm through their satellite telephones but had got no fresh leads.

An Eritrean woman living in Bologna, Italy told the Italian UNHCR office she had spoken to her brother, also on the vessel but subsequent attempts to reach him had failed. Another Eritrean based in Genoa said there were three babies on board the vessel with their mother.

The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) were informed of the sinking boat by an African national residing in Malta on Monday at 0600CEST, after one of the passengers got in touch with him and informed him that the boat was filling with water.

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 was 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.