#CrimesOfMalta: A boat in distress is apparently supplied with 64 life jackets by the Maltese armed forces and then left alone – Malta shows itself once again from its most inhuman side: instead of rescuing, they only distribute life jackets.
29.08.2020:
Our Moonbird spots a completely overloaded wooden boat in the Maltese Search and Rescue Zone. Close by, she also sights a ship of the so-called Libyan Coast Guard. The aircraft crew informs the Maltese authorities about the distress case and about the fe
A rubber dinghy with 64 people on board, which had reported an emergency to Watch the Med – Alarm Phone, is sighted at noon by our Moonbird crew. All attempts to contact the Maltese Rescue Coordination Center were unsuccessful. Also a Maltese patrol boat on site did not respond to our radio calls. Our crew documented clearly that the people on the dinghy were not wearing life jackets at this time.
In the afternoon the crew of Moonbird discovered the boat a second time. All the people on board the dinghy were now wearing life jackets – but there was no trace of the patrol boat anymore.64 people in distress spent another night in a unseaworthy rubber dinghy and arrived on their own in Sicily on August 30th.
The Maltese Armed Forces deliberately ignored the acute distress at sea and left the people alone. The international legal obligation to provide help does not end with the distribution of life jackets. Instead, the authorities showed once again that human lives are worthless to them.
In the series #CrimesOfMalta, we reconstruct 10 human rights violations in 10 weeks, which were also witnessed by our airplane Moonbird. The case reconstructions will be collected on our website.
