Malta army turns away migrants

MALTA’S armed forces have started co-operating with Libya’s coastguard to turn back migrant boats heading into Malta’s search and rescue zone, a newspaper reported yesterday, citing a secret government deal.

The government declined to comment directly on the report in the Sunday Times of Malta, but told Reuters the Mediterranean state had been working with the Libyan coastguard for many years and always operated within the law.

Under the terms of the deal, when a migrant boat is spotted sailing towards Malta, the island’s armed forces seek the intervention of the Libyan coastguard to intercept them before they enter Malta’s territorial waters, the paper said.

Non-governmental organisations have denounced previous deals by which Italy has directed the Libyan coastguard to pick up migrant boats in Libyan territorial waters, saying refugees face torture and abuse in the lawless north African country.

The Malta deal appears to go a step further by encouraging the Libyan coastguard to intervene beyond its own coastal waters, which extend some 22.2km from its shore, and into the broad search-and-rescue zone operated by Malta.

“Search and rescue areas are not areas where the coastal state exercises sovereignty or has jurisdiction, but areas forming part of high seas where foreign military assets have every right to investigate any illegal activity departing from their coast,” the Maltese government said.

Malta has taken in several hundred migrants in recent months, but almost always from charity rescue ships.