500 PEOPLE ON BOARD A BOAT THAT IS ALREADY EMBARKING WATER: THE EMERGENCY LIFE SUPPORT SHIP'S RACE AGAINST TIME. [24/05/2023]

Five hundred people aboard a vessel that is already on board. taking on water, with 45 women on board, including several pregnant, and 56 children, one born last night: this is the situation of the boat towards which the EMERGENCY Life Support is heading in these hours. Despite the gravity of the situation, no authority can take control of the situation. has so far responded to the request for relief coordination.

“The vessel, which left Cyrenaica a few days ago, is in the Maltese Sar area[24/05/2023]. We will arrive around 10pm tonight – comments Albert Mayordomo, head of mission of Life Support –. We're cruising at top speed. since Alarm Phone reported the case yesterday. It is a real race against time, in an attempt to save the lives of more than one person. possible people."

The vessel is in the Maltese search and rescue area. So as foreseen by the maritime conventions, EMERGENCY has been; addressed to the authorities of Malta to request relief coordination. Since yesterday Malta has not been responding to our written communications and the numbers of the authorities have been contacted. competent Maltese are non-functional and unreachable. EMERGENCY has also forwarded its request to the authorities – Italian: the National Maritime Rescue Coordination Center replied that the case is an emergency. under Maltese jurisdiction.

“The lack of coordination on the part of the authorities causes it is a violation of the law of the sea, as well as; as for human rights, very serious: there are 500 people, probably fleeing abuses in Libya and from countries at war, who are risking their lives at sea – continues Albert Mayordomo –. Anyone has the right to be saved, regardless of documents and nationality. which owns."

Migrants: Emergency, “no news of the boat in danger with 500 people in the Maltese search and rescue area” [05/25/2023]

There is no news of the boat in distress in the Maltese search and rescue area that the EMERGENCY Life Support vessel was going to rescue.

The vessel, which had already contacted the NGO Alarm Phone; for two days, she has had 500 people on board, including at least 45 women, including pregnant women, and 56 children, one of whom was born during navigation. The details were communicated by the passengers of the boat to Alarm Phone via satellite phone.

So as required by maritime conventions, EMERGENCY asked the authorities; competent authorities of Malta and Italy to coordinate the rescue, but the authorities they refused to share any information.

[update from https://www.emergency.it/comunicati-stampa/migranti-emergency-respingimento-di-500-persone-a-bengasi-coordinated-by-prosecutor -from-malta/]

[..] Alarm Phone, EMERGENCY, SOS Méditerranée and Humanity 1 have repeatedly contacted the local authorities. Italian and Maltese to ask for information on the fate of the missing boat. Fears that the 500 people may have been intercepted and forcibly returned to Libya began to grow. These fears were confirmed the next morning: the 500 people had not been rescued! Instead, they had been towed – for over 160 nautical miles, or more; 300 kilometers – to the Libyan port of Benghazi. An illegal refoulement, a real deportation, coordinated by RCC Malta. According to relatives, the 500 people were taken to a prison in Benghazi.

Instead of rescuing, and disembarking in a safe place, people who have tried to flee the extreme violence that migrants in Libya suffer, the Authority of a member state of the European Union – i.e. RCC Malta – decided to organize a collective push-back at sea by proxy, forcing 500 people to cross over 300 km to arrive in a Libyan prison. Furthermore, being the systematic omission of assistance at sea by Malta, within the SAR area of its competence, known for some time, the Authorities Italians should have mobilized relief to protect 500 lives and ensure their disembarkation in a safe place. [..]