A News Report on Malta Press

Illegal migrants rescued by Tunisian ship

The nightmare for the 96 illegal migrants lost at sea

ended late on Friday evening when they were rescued by

a Tunisian merchant ship 30 miles west of Lampedusa.

The Armed Forces of Malta duty officer yesterday

confirmed that the 13-metre boat laden with the

migrants was towed to Sfax in Tunisia by the ship.

Until then, hopes of finding the migrants alive were

quickly dwindling, after it was deemed futile to

continue an hours-long search.

The alarm had been raised on Thursday by an Eritrean

woman living in Bergamo, who contacted the Italian

police after receiving a desperate call for help from

her sister on the boat, according to Italian media.

The message said the boat was in difficulty, and the

passengers risked being swept away by the waves. "Do

something," the woman pleaded with her sister.

The AFM was contacted by the rescue centre in Rome to

help in the search and rescue operation, in which four

foreign military warships and two merchant vessels

were involved.

The boat was spotted by a helicopter on Thursday

evening off Lampedusa amidst strong winds and

three-metre high waves. However, the helicopter needed

to turn back for refuelling, and contact by satellite

phone was lost with the migrants - among which were 15

women and three children.

The desperate search in the rough seas and strong

winds was called off by the AFM on Friday afternoon,

and army captain Andrew Mallia was quoted by BBC News

online saying that it was improbable that anyone on

the boat survived as they would have had water getting

into the boat faster than they could get it out.

In fact, media reports said that in the area where the

boat was last seen, around 50 miles south-east of

Lampedusa, the sea was raging at force six, and the

wind was blowing at 40 knots, with five-storey high

waves blocking the boat from being picked up by radar.

Italian aircraft persevered in the search for a few

hours, but the search was suspended on Friday evening.

However, on its return to land at around 9.15 p.m. an

Italian military plane spotted the boat.

Italian media said when it was around 35 miles from

Lampedusa, the plane's crew saw a light pop out in the

middle of the waves, and suddenly the boat

materialised in front of their eyes.

A Tunisian merchant ship - Cape Faline - was called to

the rescue, and the nightmare ended for the migrants

after they were transferred on board the ship and

taken to Tunisia.

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