Joint communiqué by Alarm Phone, Sea-Watch, Mediterranea Saving Humans and Emergency

Credit cover photo: Consolidated Rescue Group

"They have fled wars and prisons in Syria and now, unfortunately, they have been returned to Libya.

On the afternoon of 23 May 2023, the Alarm Phone network was contacted by a group of people in distress who had fled Tobruk in Libya. The 500 or so people included people from Syria, Egypt, Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as 55 children and 45 women. The engine of the double-decker fishing boat had stopped working and the boat was adrift. Their shared GPS position put them more than 30 nautical miles inside the Maltese Search and Rescue (SAR) zone, where the Maltese authorities are responsible for coordinating rescue operations.

Alarm Phone alerted the RCC in Malta and the MRCC in Rome, Italy, as well as several civilian fleet ships operating off the coast of western Libya. In the hours that followed, the situation for the 500 people in distress deteriorated: more and more water entered the ship, forcing those on the lower deck to flee to the upper deck, Alarm Phone reported. Several merchant ships passed by in the distance, not stopping to help the people in distress. At some point during the night of 23-24 May, people on board reported to Alarm Phone that a merchant vessel had almost collided with them.

These facts prove that RCC Malta did not inform the ships in the area of the drifting boat with 500 people in danger.

Throughout the night, Alarm Phone was in constant contact with the group. The last time Alarm Phone was able to speak to the people on board was at 6.20am CEST on 24 May. They reported an unchanged situation, with the vessel still adrift. The Maltese Search and Rescue Authority - RCC Malta - continued not to respond to calls for help. At 11:44 CEST, according to the satellite phone credit monitored by Alarm Phone, the shipwrecked people made one last call on their satellite phone - but it is unclear to whom they were calling. Subsequently, neither the relatives and friends of those on board who had contacted Alarm Phone, nor Alarm Phone itself, were able to reconnect with those in distress. In the hours that followed, more and more people contacted Alarm Phone asking for information about the fate of their loved ones.

At 13:45 CEST, Sea-Watch's Seabird 2 aircraft arrived in the area of the last known position and searched for the boat in distress. The crew were unable to locate the large fishing boat with around 500 people on board. How could such a large group on board a fishing boat disappear into thin air?

On the night of 24-25 May, the NGO Emergency's Life Support, SOS Méditerranée's Ocean Viking and SOS Humanity's Humanity 1 reached the area and began searching for the missing boat, which continued throughout the following day. No government military vessels took part in the search. Instead, the authorities remained tight-lipped about the group's fate. On 25 May, the Seabird 2 aircraft again searched for the missing boat, covering a wider search area than the previous day. Meanwhile, the capacity of the NGO vessels could have been used to save lives elsewhere, rather than being wasted on a search that was already known to be futile.

Alarm Phone, Emergency and other civil relief organisations repeatedly contacted the Italian and Maltese authorities to enquire about the fate of the missing boat. Fears grew that the 500 people had been intercepted and forcibly returned to Libya. These fears were confirmed the next morning: the 500 people had not been rescued! On the contrary, they had been towed - over 160 nautical miles, or more than 300 kilometres - 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 trying to escape the extreme violence that migrants face in Libya, the authority of an EU Member State - namely RCC Malta - decided to organise by proxy a collective refoulement at sea, forcing 500 people to cross more than 300 km to end up in a Libyan prison. Moreover, since Malta's systematic failure to provide assistance at sea within its SAR jurisdiction has been known for some time, the Italian authorities should have mobilised assistance to protect the lives of 500 people and ensure their disembarkation in a safe place.

We demand answers:

Why did RCC Malta, as the competent authority in the Maltese SAR, not coordinate the rescue of this vessel in distress, but instead organised a proxy refoulement? Why were the Maltese armed forces not immediately dispatched to assist the vessel in distress, putting 500 lives at risk? Why did the Maltese RCC not order any of the many merchant ships in the vicinity to assist the vessel in distress?

Why did the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, aware of the Maltese policy and practice of not providing systematic assistance, and having been informed of the danger, not send adequate rescue resources to assist the ship in distress?

The aircraft "Seagull" of the European operation EUNAVFOR MED Irini flew in the area of the last known position of the vessel in distress between 13:31 and 14:12 CEST on 24 May, at the same time as contact was lost with the people on board the drifting vessel. The German military vessel 'FGS Bonn' of EUNAVFOR MED Operation Iri was also only 100 km away from the boat in distress. Why were the people in distress not rescued?

What is the true identity of the Libyan boat and its crew that carried out the refoulement? Did the crew of the boat that intercepted the group of people in distress, under the coordination of RCC Malta, lie to the people and claim that they were rescuing them and taking them to Europe?

What was the role of the vessel TAREQ BIN ZEYAD (IMO 9889930), which was sighted at position 34°51 N - 019°46 E at 6:10 CEST on 24 May, close to the drifting boat, and whose track disappeared shortly afterwards? The TAREQ BIN ZEYAD normally operates only in the port area of Benghazi. The ship is named after a notorious Libyan militia that operates in the area and is known to have committed numerous war crimes and violations of basic human rights.

We demand

The Maltese RCC to fulfil its obligations under international maritime law and ensure that people in distress at sea are rescued and subsequently disembarked in a safe place in Europe;

European governmental actors, including the Rescue Coordination Centres and EUNAVFOR MED Irini, to share all relevant information on cases of distress with civilian actors in order to ensure that persons in distress at sea are rescued without delay;

the Maltese and Italian authorities to provide in a transparent manner all information in their possession concerning the vessel in distress, the unidentified unit that carried out the illegal refoulement and the vessel TAREQ BIN ZEYAD, as well as the involvement of the Maltese and Italian RCCs in the forced refoulement of the 500 persons in distress.