Twenty-seven illegal immigrants spent a day at sea holding on to buoys around a giant tuna net as the Maltese and Libyan governments argued over who should save them from drowning.
They were picked up eventually by an Italian patrol vessel. The men - Africans of various nationalities - had paid for a passage from Libya to Europe in an open boat that foundered on Saturday.
Soon after their boat went down they were spotted by the Maltese tug Boudafel, which was towing a huge tuna-breeding plant towards Spain.
The men said the tug threw them a line and began towing them, ahead of the plant.
Floating circleWhen their boat sank the men grabbed the steel cable connecting the breeder to the tug and worked their way on to buoys that formed a floating circle, about 60 metres across, supporting the system of nets below the surface.
The tug was ordered by her owners not to take the men on board because that would have interrupted her voyage.
The men were transferred after 24 hours to the Italian naval vessel Orione, which was in the area searching for another boatload of migrants that had become known as the “phantom boat”.
Phantom boat concern
That was an open boat, crammed with 53 men, women and children, sighted and photographed from the air on Monday last week about 145km south of Malta. Its engine had stopped and it looked as if the boat was in difficulty, but contact was lost.
At first it was thought that the tuna buoy survivors had been on that boat, but it became clear that there was no connection. The authorities now fear that the occupants of the “phantom boat” are dead. The 27 migrants told Italian authorities their engine broke down several days after leaving Libya last week.
The decision not to take the survivors on board the tug may have been prompted by the experience of the Spanish trawler Francisco Catalina. It rescued 51 “illegals” and then stood off Malta for a week because the Valletta authorities refused them permission to enter harbour.
Her captain was told at the weekend that he could not land them there.
Failed negotiations
Malta, which in recent weeks has had to deal with several illegal landings, contacted the Libyan Government about the shipwrecked immigrants but, after many hours, diplomatic negotiations broke down and Valletta called on other European states to intervene.
The men were located by Italian navy reconnaissance aircraft about 140km southeast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. According to a navy spokesman, the 1580-tonne Orione sent ahead her helicopter to drop lifejackets and arrived on the scene in the early evening to take the men on board.
They landed yesterday at Lampedusa, where there is a permanent detention centre to cope with the flow of illegal migrants who land either directly on the island or are picked up by Italian patrol vessels.
Increasing migrant numbers
Since the start of the year, 3149 people have arrived illegally on the Italian coast, a significant drop from last year. However, there has been an increase in recent weeks in the number of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean. Authorities say that the warm weather and calm seas have played a role.
Last year, more than 31,000 people, mainly from Africa, landed illegally on the Canary Islands, seen as an outpost for entry into the European Union.
That was six times the number in 2005.
