(Valletta) A migrant boat capsized Friday off the coast of Malta during a rescue operation, killing five people including a woman, announced an official of the armed forces of the small Mediterranean island.
“Unfortunately, five migrants were brought back lifeless to the shore,” Colonel Edric Zahra said at a press conference, adding that rescue services were looking for possible other victims.
In addition, eight migrants were hospitalized, while 21 others were taken to a reception center in Safi, in the south of the island. The boat would have left Libya. The rescued migrants claim to come from Syria, Egypt, Ghana and Eritrea.
According to initial information, around thirty people were in the boat.
The boat, spotted in the morning south of the Maltese coast, “capsized suddenly while a rescue operation was underway”. A photo released by the Maltese Armed Forces shows the patrol boat approaching the migrants’ boat.
PHOTO MALTESE ARMED FORCES VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Maltese Armed Forces patrol boat approaching the migrants’ boat.
“These migrant boats are usually overloaded with passengers. When passengers move from one side to the other, it is likely that the boat loses its stability,” explained the colonel. “The migrants ended up at sea,” he lamented.
Some 380 migrants arrived in Malta by sea last year, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
The vast majority of those attempting to cross the central Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe arrive in Italy, which recorded almost 160,000 arrivals in 2023.
The central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world: 2,498 people died there in 2023, or 75% more than the previous year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).