Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1438074
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 DECEMBER 2021 EYEWITNESS MALTA has been accused of violating its international obliga- tion to rescue people at sea, after the rescue boat Sea-Eye 4 arrived in the Maltese search and rescue zone on Thursday, 16 December 16 with 223 people in four res- cue operations. Among them are 29 women, 4 of whom are pregnant, and 8 children. The crew is currently looking for another boat in dis- tress. The survivors on board the Sea-Eye 4 are currently being cared for and medically treat- ed by the crew. One child has a broken arm and another has a broken finger. Two pregnant women have stomach pains and several people have had to be treated for chemical burns and hypothermia. "Although further boats car- rying numerous people in acute distress have been re- ported at sea since yesterday, Malta has once again failed to fulfill its obligation to coordi- nate distress cases at sea and rescue these people," Sea-Eye spokesperson Sophie Weiden- hiller said. With the weather expected to deteriorate significantly soon, civil sea rescue organisations like Sea-Eye say they are are currently the only European forces looking for people at- tempting the dangerous Medi- terranean sea crossing. "It is hard to bear that we have to assume that no help at all came for some of the boats in danger. Civil sea rescue ca- pacities are important, but al- so limited. The cold-blooded ignorance of the EU costs us human lives – the sea grave is growing, even if we constantly fight against it " The people who drowned in agony simply wanted a life in safety to which they were enti- tled - and we deny it to them. But what right do we have to elevate ourselves above these people and their fate?" Weid- enhiller said. Christmas rescue