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40 Somali migrants rescued by AFM
40 Somali migrants have been rescued by the Armed Forces and have been brought to Malta.
6 December 2011, 12:00am
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Karl Stagno-Navarra
1 min read
The migrants were rescued in stormy seas some 70 miles off Malta, after a distress call was made from the sinking dinghy.
The AFM is reportedly coordinating a number of rescue missions in the Mediterranean as the Italian Coast Guard already rescued some 80 other migrants, who reportedly left the Libyan coast.
The new Libyan government has vowed to stop illegal immigration from its coast and announced in a news statement that it had stopped some 400 migrants from attempting to leave towards Italy or Malta.
According to an NTC spokesman, the migrants were intercepted as they were set to leave from a port near Tripoli. Among them were Ethiopians, Ghanaians, Ivorians and Nigerians.
Besides curbing the exodus of sub-Saharan migrants, the National Transitional Council is determined to stop their exploitation and has introduced tough penalties on who profits from human trafficking.
Commander Khaled al-Bassir who leads the former rebel force in Libya said that the migrants were intercepted after the NTC had received information about their departure.
When questioned, many said that they had become victims of fraud organised by Libyans who were paid between US$1,000 and US$1,500 each.
"Last night they asked us to board and we had not spent more than two hours at sea when police boats surrounded us and escorted us to the port. I want to leave to Europe. I do not know where they plan to take us," an Ethiopian migrant woman told reporters in Tripoli soon after she was taken back to shore in Tripoli last night together with dozens of other migrants.
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Instead of making good use of immigrants by getting them to become productive members of our society, we continue to utter useless racist slogans. To that add that the US and some European countries are creaming off the best immigrants and "resettling" them in their countries. The flood of migrants from Africa will not abate since conditions in sub-Saharan Africa are still abysmal (apart from a handful of countries) and the situation in North Africa is far from stable and will not be so for a FEW YEARS.
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It is a pity to hear of another boat arrival from the Libyan shores, after all that happened during the past months..All MT citizens hoped that boat arrivals would have been history..with the fall of the Gaddafi regime..Not surprised with all of them claiming to be Somali's..Since their fellow friends in Malta are being resettled in Northern Europe & USA, Somali's, Eritrean's will keep on arriving until their turn comes up!!!!Whilst they are here, we are the ones who fork out the money from our taxes, so that they will have a comfortable stay in our beautiful island, so called , SOMAlta!!!!
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http://euobserver.com/1019/114512
** Congolese tensions spill onto streets of Brussels ** BRUSSELS - Post-electoral tensions in the Democratic Republic of Congo spilled onto the streets of Brussels on Monday (5 December), with angry supporters of opposition presidential candidate Etienne Tshisekedi damaging vehicles and briefly occupying the EU capital’s inner ring-road. ** ... A number of shop and car windows were smashed before smaller groups of protestors then moved on to the US and Congolese embassies....** Do we want this to happen in Malta? ** SEND THEM BACK TO LIBYA.
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Libya is now a free and democratic country. Sub-Saharan African illegal immigrants no longer have an excuse to cross over to Europe. Send them back with the same boat they came on.
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Good. ** Now send them back to Libya. ** Libya is now a democratic country so they have no problem. ** SEND THEM BACK.
Maureen Attard •
I agree with josephborg. Just send back from where they came. Now eygpt,, Libya and Tunisia are free countries.
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Fine, they're rescued, they're safe, they're not in danger...NOW SEND THEM BACK!!!
