Nato hands over rescued migrants to Tunisian frigate

Spanish warship 'Almirante Juan de Borbon' remained outside Maltese territorial waters throughout the night this morning recieved orders to head to Tunisia where an agreement has been reached with the government to accept the migrants and take them in to the Dehiba Refugee camp.

The 111 refugees, namely Ghanians, Tunisian and Libyans were rescued last Sunday  some 141 miles off Malta after they were found drifting.

According to the Maltese government, the Tunisian navy met the Spanish warship outside the Tunisian territorial waters and took on the migrants.

Yesterday, the Tunisian government accepted three migrants for hospitalisation and were taken off the Spanish ship by helicopter.

"The Government of Malta thanks all parties directly involved in the logical conclusion to this search and rescue operation," the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.

The matter has deeply embarrassed NATO and disrupted Operation Unified Protector off the Libyan coast, as naval assets involved in the mess had to be redeployed and placed far from their operational zone.

The Spanish government said that NATO "did not instruct" the Almirante Juan de Borbon to sail towards Malta, causing further embarrassment to the alliance.

Contacted in Brussels, a NATO spokesman told MaltaToday that the 'Almirante Juan de Borbon' remains under NATO command, however it has been 'dispensed' from operations connected to enforcing a naval embargo on Libya as mandated by the United Nations.

Addressing a press briefing in Valletta two days ago, home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said that the Maltese government is waiting for replies from Nato as to who and why a decision was taken to take more than 100 migrants who were rescued some 141 miles off Malta towards Valletta.

"This is a sovereign state and we cannot accept that Nato just decides to bring migrants here, when Malta was surely not the safest and closest port ," Mifsud Bonnici said, adding that "the ball is now in Nato's court and we cannot accept any responsibility for what is clearly not ours."

Mifsud Bonnici insisted that this was no stand-off with Spain or Italy, however it was an issue of Malta demanding that it's soveregnity be respected at all times.

"Someone has taken a decision and we want to know why," the minister insisted, as he explained that he had a telephone convesation with his Spanish counterpart in Madrid over the issue.

According to Mifsud Bonnici, the Spanish minister admitted to him that the ship's "unilateral decision was strange." He added that the ship is under Nato command and not Spain's at the moment.

So far the Spanish warship Almirante Juan de Borbon remains outside Malta's territorial waters awaiting orders.

The stand-off has been ongoing since Sunday and yesterday involved the medical evacuation of a 10-month old baby from on board the Spanish ship and brought by helicopter to Mater Dei Hospital for urgent medical care. Another two migrants were brought by helicopter to Malta today.

An AFM statement yesterday only talked about a 'medical evacuation' of an infant, but kept the issue quiet until it was revealed by the Spanish minister of defence Carme Chacon, who briefed parliament in Madrid and the media on the ongoing situation outside Malta's territorial waters.

Military sources have confirmed that the Spanish warship Almirante Juan de Borbón rescued the migrantson Sunday morning from a drifting boat south of Lampedusa, but when the ship attempted to take the migrants to Lampedusa, an Italian aircraft carrier – the Giuseppe Garibaldi – also active in the Mediterranean as part of Operation Unified Protector - was heard ordering the Spanish captain not to proceed towards the island.

It was here that the Spanish authorities asked the Maltese government permission to land the migrants, which permission was denied given that the responsibility was Italian, given that Lampedusa was the closest and safest port.

According to NATO, “the NATO Frigate responded [on 10 July] to a vessel in distress some 75 miles off the coast of Libya. A NATO ship [then] … provided medical support, food and offered mechanical assistance to the distressed civilians. [On the] 11th of July, the migrants (approximately 100), Ghanaians, Tunisians and Libyans, were transferred onto the NATO ship in accordance with the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) protocol…”

NATO says that “the appropriate legal, diplomatic and military authorities are being consulted to determine future course of action.”

MaltaToday is informed that talks are ongoing at this time between senior diplomats from the Spanish, Maltese and Italian governments, in a bid to find a solution to the impasse as some of the migrants are in urgent need of medical help.

Contacted, a NATO spokesman has said that an appeal has been made to Rome and Valletta for a solution to the problem, and that "human lives are respected at this time."

Last week, AFM Commander Brigadier Martin Xuereb, summarised Malta’s interpretation of its search and rescue obligations. 

Xuereb said that Malta has an obligation to coordinate search and rescue operations within its Search and Rescue Zone (SAR) but is not required to perform all rescue operations.

Commander Xuereb said Malta believes rescued persons should be disembarked at the nearest place of safety which, given the size and location of the Maltese SAR, will sometimes mean that Italian territory, particularly Lampedusa, is closer.

 Xuereb acknowledged that this interpretation is not shared by others, adding that “Malta had consistently insisted that the arrangement that best represented the interests of rescued persons was one that saw them disembarked in the nearest place of safety.”

He said the Maltese Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) has coordinated or assisted with 54 SAR cases so far this year.

Xuereb also confirmed that Malta would continue its refusal to host Frontex joint operations because of its objections to Frontex guidelines which are based “on a number of grounds, including the fact that [the guidelines] addressed matters deemed to be outside community competence and attempted to erode the rights that Malta enjoyed under the international legal framework. In light of these guidelines, Malta considered the hosting of [Frontex] joint operations to be detrimental to its national interest.”

Malta objects to the guidelines because it believes they would require rescued migrants to be disembarked in the country hosting the joint operation.