Amnesty demands criminal probe into Malta's push-backs

Meanwhile, the government under prime minister Robert Abela has been accused of sanctioning push backs to Libya, an illegal practice of forcing people to return to areas they fled.

"Malta seems to have really escalated the level of unlawfulness," said Elisa De Pieri, regional researcher at Amnesty International.

Speaking to EUobserver on Monday (7 September), De Pieri said there is a major lack of accountability on the island-nation, which is around 300 nautical miles from Libya.

"For us the main problem is that there needs to be accountability, there needs an investigation that is independent and impartial, a criminal investigation," she said.

A well-documented incident at Easter saw 51 people, including seven women and three children, pushed back to Libya on a fishing boat that had been docked in Malta.

Five people were found dead by the time it arrived in Libya and survivors say another seven went missing.

That incident sparked a magistrate inquiry in Malta - but Amnesty says the probe has failed to deliver any meaningful results.

"This investigation needs to happen and it needs to happen not just for the push-backs, but also for the detention of about 425 people at sea that we saw in May and June," said De Pieri.

Her comments came ahead of a new 36-page report by Amnesty on Tuesday (8 September), which details Malta's treatment of migrants during the first half of 2020.

It says Malta's unlawful practices are a byproduct of a European Union that has prioritised reducing migrant arrivals.

The EU, alongside Italy and Malta, have been cooperating with the Libyan Coast Guard and other Libyan ministries to prevent people from leaving the country.

The European Commission has long maintained that this is part of a bigger scheme to stop migrant-smuggling.

But the human consequences of such an approach appear to have resulted in more misery as EU states broadly refuse to coordinate any real proposal to help people in distress at sea.

Maersk Etienne

NGO charity boats and commercial shipping vessels are instead left to carry out rescues at sea - while at the same time then facing fines and sanctions by EU member states.

The latest incident revolves around the Danish-flagged Maersk Etienne, which had picked up 27 people from a raft in the Mediterranean over a month ago.

Not a single EU member state has come forward to offer a safe port of disembarkation, amid an outcry from rights groups.

Numerous other standoffs on charity boats run by NGOs since 2018 have resulted in similar tensions, where people on board may require medical attention.

Others have thrown themselves in the water out of acts of desperation.

Three of the rescued migrants jumped off the Maersk Etienne on Sunday (6 September).

"A commercial vessel is not a safe environment for these vulnerable people and they must be immediately brought to a safe port," said a group of UN agencies in a joint statement on Monday (7 September).

Charity groups and NGOs are hoping that a long-awaited new EU pact on migration and asylum, set to be published this month, may offer some response to stem the stand-offs.