On May 2, Sea-Watch tweeted some audio and its latest accusation against the Maltese authorities. In it, the private rescue organization, based in Germany, accused Malta of "once again ordering [nearby merchant ships] not to rescue," a group of migrants on a small boat within one nautical mile of its position in the Mediterranean.

According to Sea-Watch, the 36 migrants on board the ship were finally rescued on Tuesday (May 2) in the morning by the private rescue ship Geo Barents, operated by the medical humanitarian charity Doctors without Borders (MSF).

This is not the first time that Malta has been accused of telling nearby merchant ships not to rescue. Sea-Watch says that "dozens of people" have been "ignored and abandoned to their fate" in this way. The charity says that although Malta said the people on the boat were not in distress, in their view "a small and overcrowded boat like this one is always in danger on open seas and must be rescued as soon as possible."

Audio of communication with merchant ship

On their Twitter feed, Sea-Watch published audio of communication between their surveillance plane and the Marco Polo merchant ship which was apparently within one nautical sea mile of the migrant boat.

In the audio clip, someone from the Sea-Watch surveillance plane asks to clarify whether the RCC Malta Search and Rescue Command had told the crew of the Marco Polo not to perform a rescue. "That is correct ma'am," comes back the reply. "That is the information that is given to us that we will not take this, because this is, there is not a distress."

Also read: Authorities hiding sea rescue figures

In several recent cases in the last few weeks, other NGOs have also accused Malta of instructing nearby ships to hold off performing rescues. In one case, it appears from posts on Alarm Phone that this position of waiting or not responding to distress calls meant that the migrant boat eventually drifted out of Maltese waters and into neighboring Italian waters, prompting the Italian coastguard to launch a rescue operation and eventually tow those on board a larger vessel to port on the island of Sicily.

EU Human Rights Commissioner: 'Malta ignored calls of distress'

In 2022, the EU-funded European Council on Refugees and Exiles ECRE and the Asylum Information Database AIDA, published information from the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights observations on a visit to Malta in October 2021.

The report was published in January 2022 and the commissioner Dunja Mijatovic said then that Malta needed to step up its "capacities and ensure effective co-ordination of search and rescue operations."

From January to December 2022, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR recorded just 444 sea arrivals to Malta. In neighboring Italy in the same time period, more than 100,000 migrants arrived. Most arrivals to Italy will have to pass through the Maltese search and rescue zone at some point in order to reach Italy.

According to AIDA and the UNHCR, 12 people arrived in Malta after being airlifted to safety by the armed forces of Malta, at least 23 people arrived under their own steam and 409 people were rescued by the Armed Forces of Malta at sea.

Accusations of pushbacks

The report stated that it is "estimated that Malta ignored calls of distress and failed to rescue around 7,459 people in distress at sea in its SAR zone." Malta was also accused of being involved in at least 14 pushbacks in this time, involving allegedly 789 people. The numbers, state the report are an "estimation based on incidents reported by rescue NGOs and news agencies."

In January 2022, Malta was accused of being responsible for two pushbacks on boats with more than 69 people on board. It also allegedly refused to reply to repeated distress calls from one boat carrying approximately 100 passengers, states the AIDA report.

Also read: Malta accused of ignoring alarms again and leaving migrants to die

In February, this behavior is alleged to continue, with Malta accused of refusing to reply to distress calls, and instructing a merchant vessel not to carry out the rescue. More allegations of this kind follow in March, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. The authorities are also accused of repeatedly refusing disembarkation to private rescue vessels of thousands of people throughout the year.

In one case in December 2022, a pregnant woman rescued by the Geo Barents gave birth to her baby on board the rescue ship. AFM said that only the woman and her newborn could be evacuated, leaving her other three children, all under 11 years of age on board the Geo Barents. Eventually, notes the report, the woman and all her children were medically evacuated to Italy.

Difficult to seek asylum in Malta

According to ECRE, "no incoming relocation scheme, resettlement or humanitarian visa exist in the case of Malta." In 2022, Malta did host about 50,000 third country nationals, but they all held a single work permit. These permits mean that anyone wishing to apply for residency would need an endorsement from their employer and if they were to leave that employment for any reason, including that of alleged ill-treatment, their work visa would cease to apply unless they found a new employer within ten days.

In 2022, Malta didn’t resettle any refugees. ECRE say that the asylum procedure in Malta is subject to "excessive delays" and has a "high rejection rate." They say that that pushes many asylum seekers to drop their application in order to attempt to secure a Single Work Permit by exiting Malta and applying from their country of origin or a third country outside the Schengen space. However, there is no guarantee that that application would then be successful.

In the case of the migrant boat carrying 36 people, the organization Alarm Phone, which monitors migrant journeys towards Europe, posted on May 2 that the rescue of the people on board was eventually coordinated by the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center IMRCC. Another rescue of around 100 people was also carried out by the crew of the Geo Barents in the Maltese SAR on May 1.

Alarm Phone too accuse Malta of a "policy of non-assistance."