Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/822666
maltatoday, THURSDAY, 11 MAY 2017 News Italy let refugees drown: L'Espresso report MATTHEW VELLA ALMOST four years ago, 268 Syrian refugees – including 60 children – lost their lives in a shipwreck about 100 km south of Lampedusa. It was considered one of the worst tragedies of the European refugee crisis, but a leaked au- diotape published Monday by the Italian magazine L'Espresso sug- gested that Italian authorities let the Syrians drown despite being alerted several hours earlier that the refugees' ship was in danger. On the evening of 10 October, 2013, a ship carrying at least 480 people left Zuwarah, in northwestern Libya, headed for Lampedusa. Most of the passengers were Syrians who had left their coun- try for Libya when conf lict erupted at home in 2011. Their ship sailed until 5pm the next day, when it capsized 113km south of Lampedusa. While some of the passengers were rescued by Italian and Mal- tese ships, the majority died be- fore rescuers arrived. L'Espresso published five re- cordings of separate phone con- versations from the day of the incident. In the first, at 12:39 pm pas- senger Mohanned Jammo, a doc- tor who survived the shipwreck and who had a smartphone with him, calls the headquarters of the Italian coast guard in Rome asking for help. "The boat is going down" and "water is coming into it," he says. At 1:17 pm, Jammo calls again, asking whether the coast guard has sent anyone. He's answered by a man who tells him to call Malta instead. In a third conversation, at 1:48 pm, Jammo again calls the coast guard, saying he called Maltese authorities and was told he's closer to Lampedusa. "Lampedusa is Italy?" he asks. "We are dying, please." At the time, Italy had a military vessel about 37 km from the ref- ugees' ship, while Malta's closest ship was 130 km away. Fabrizio Gatti, the investiga- tive reporter who obtained the recordings, said that the Ital- ian ship, as the closest ship, was obligated to rescue the refugees under maritime law. MaltaToday freedom of information request The Armed Forces of Malta had refused a Freedom of Infor- mation request by MaltaToday, on the specific details concern- ing its rescue mission in October to save some 200 asylum seekers shipwrecked off Lampedusa. The Armed Forces was then asked to explain what could have possibly been a two to three-hour delay on the fatal 11 October shipwreck, and which may also explain why the Ital- ian coast guard did not effect a faster and timelier rescue mis- sion when it was first alerted to a boat in distress that would later result in the deaths of 268. Just over 200 lives were saved by the Maltese and the Italians during the shipwreck. The AFM first located the boat at 4pm on 11 October, using its King Air aircraft - but that was three hours after the Italian coast guard informed the Mal- tese army with the coordinates of the boat in distress. It was crucial to learn at what time the Hawker Beechcraft King Air plane left Malta after Rome's Coordination Centre passed on the rescue mission at 1:05pm. A chronology of the events of the day as relayed by Admiral Fe- licio Angrisano to Italian weekly L'Espresso, revealed that the Italians off loaded the responsi- bility for the search-and-rescue mission to Malta, when an Ital- ian naval asset – the ITS Libra – was closer to the boat in distress. Although the migrants' boat was located within Malta's search and rescue zone, the boat was also 60 nautical miles (113km) south of Lampedusa island, and 218km away from Malta. What was then unclear at that stage is whether Italy and Malta were collaborating with each other at that point when, at 1:05pm, the Italians decided to pass the buck to Malta. While the Italians said they passed on the rescue coordina- tion to Malta at 1:05pm, it was unclear as to what took place be- tween this hour and the AFM's location of the boat at 4pm. Ad- miral Angrisano had then said the time the King Air located the boat is at 4:22pm. According to L'Espresso, It- aly's Libra patrol boat – apart from the merchant vessels Stadt Bremerhaven and the Tyrusland, respectively carrying f lags of the Marshall Islands and the United Kingdom – was already 27 miles away from the rescue point. From data collected by Goldsmiths University's oceanographic pro- ject, it is believed that the Libra – out on patrol to protect Italian fishermen from Libyan militias – could have made it to the res- cue point within 90 minutes at its top speed of 37 km per hour. What is sure is that the Italians did not despatch the Libra any sooner. In fact it was only after the AFM's patrol boat P61 arrived on the scene at a time between 5:07pm and 5:15pm, that it alerted the Italians for assistance. Malta airport's €20 million profit paves way for investment programme MATTHEW VELLA MALTA International Airport plc has reported a net profit for 2016 of €20.98 million, translat- ing into an upturn of 8.9% over the preceding year. Results of the Company's per- formance during 2016 were pre- sented at Malta International Airport's 25th Annual General Meeting, with profits achieved on the back of a 10% increase in passenger traffic and an im- provement of 5.1% in its non- aviation segment. This positive performance drove MIA's contribution to the Maltese government, in annual taxes on income and dividends from a 20% shareholding, to €14.1 million. MIA Chairman Nikolaus Gretzmacher said Malta Inter- national Airport had changed over the past 25 years, both in terms of annual passenger movements, now having sur- passed the 5 million mark, and in terms of infrastructure. "Malta International Air- port's ultimate commitment remains that of delivering re- sults that bear a positive im- pact on the islands as a whole. Operating in a financially sound manner ensures that we can maintain our responsibil- ity in supporting the 4,000 jobs that depend on our airport and allows us to create more career opportunities," Gretzmacher said. MIA CEO Alan Borg pre- sented details of the company's growth across its key financial indicators, an in-depth traffic report, and planned invest- ments for 2017 adding up to €16 million. "Investing in our airport is an ongoing process, which enables us to host a growing number of passengers, whilst providing them with the best possible ex- perience in delivering Malta's first and last impression. Our four-star rating from Skytrax and third place in the Airport Service Quality Awards in 2016 indicate that, thus far, we have been successful in doing this," Borg said. MIA is now embarking on a €12 million reconfiguration project, which will see the ter- minal furnished with addition- al check-in desks and a security screening area occupying dou- ble its current footprint with family and fast-track lanes. Shareholders approved a to- tal net dividend of €0.10c per share for 2016. The follow- ing directors were confirmed in office for the forthcoming year: Nikolaus Gretzmacher, Cory Greenland, Rita Heiss, Wolfgang Koeberl, and Florian Nowotny as Non-Executive Di- rectors, and CEO Alan Borg and CFO Karl Dandler as Ex- ecutive Directors. MIA also reconfirmed Alan Borg as Chief Executive Officer for another three-year term. MIA reconfirmed Alan Borg as Chief Executive Officer for another three-year term.