PN urges government to clarify facts surrounding Lampedusa tragedy

The Nationalist Party has urged the government to clarify the facts surrounding the 11 October Lampedusa tragedy and publish relevant information confirming what actually happened on that tragic day.

The PN's request comes in wake of a report published by an Italian journalist in November. According to Italy's investigative journalism magazine l'Espresso, the Italian navy ignored rescue calls from a sinking fishing boat that claimed the lives of over 260 Syrian and other nationals on 11 October at sea, to "pass the buck" to Malta.

Journalist Fabrizio Gatti published documentary evidence showing that Italy's Libra patrol boat was a short distance away from the boat that was carrying over 460 migrants, but did not intervene.

MaltaToday's questions to the Armed Forces of Malta have so far gone unanswered, while Fabrizio Gatti is chasing the story with the AFM.

MaltaToday subsequently filed a Freedom Of Information request demanding to know exactly what happened on the day.

"The government must immediately uphold the request made by MaltaToday according to the Freedom of Information Act and publish the information," the PN said today.

In a statement, the PN added government and competent authorities should clarify the facts, based on what The Malta Independent on Sunday wrote two weeks later.

The political party said it was in the national interest that government ensures it always acts according to international rights and obligations and carries out its duties.

"Faced with such reports, the government has the duty to speak out and answer the questions that are being made," the PN said.

Of the 12:26pm rescue call received by the Italians on Friday, 11 October Gatti, the Italian journalist, wrote that "the sinking fishing-boat was certainly visible on their radar screen.

"But no one gave any orders; no one took any decisions that could have still saved 268 lives. The Libra was authorized to reach the spot only at 17:14 hours. By that time, the children's ship had already capsized seven minutes earlier, the sea now an expanse of living and dead people."

According to the evidence published by L'Espresso, the cause of the delay in succouring the migrants was the "passing the buck of responsibility between Italy and Malta during search-and-rescue operations".

Apart from data from some 13,000 ship movements in transit from 11am to midnight during that Friday of 11 October, there is the account of Admiral Felicio Angrisano, commander of Italy's coastguard, and other reports by naval officers.