LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The international NGO Alarm Phone accused Malta, Italy, and Greece of refusing to assign a port of safety to a group of 24 migrants, including nine children, despite the group being in distress. Alarm Phone added that the migrants were pushed back to Libya while they were in Maltàs search and rescue zone.
The NGO confirmed that it was alerted by the migrants about the difficulties they were facing due to very bad weather. Their boat had lost its direction due to a storm and was later discovered by a merchant vessel.
The merchant vessel PGE TORNADO rescued the people, said Alarm Phone, adding that the Maltese, Italian and Greek authorities refused to assign a port of safety, and the merchant vessel was ordered to return the migrants to Libya.
Alarm Phone confirmed that the group is now in Misrata, separately imprisoned in two centres. Some of them are sick and they fear deportation to Syria and Egypt. There are 9 children among them. Alarm Phone called on the authorities to immediately release them.
Meanwhile, another international NGO, Sea-Watch, criticized the European authorities for ignoring the recently widely predicted bad weather and abandoned dozens of boats to their fate. Sea-Watch said that another group of migrants went missing due to bad weather. Sea-Watch also confirmed that 49 migrants were saved by the NGO Doctors Without Borders. They have been for six days adrift facing a storm. While the vessel GeoBarents operated by Doctors Without Borders found two migrants who were part of this group following an over 3 hours search, another migrant is still missing, believed dead.
According to Sea-Watch, the number of dead and missing in the Mediterranean has risen to 2,063 this year alone.

– Photo: Agenzia Fotogramma –
(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – A report published by Eurofound and the European Environment Agency (EEA) stated that Malta has not yet exploited its potential to generate and consume renewable and clean energy. The report found that Malta and the Netherlands are lagging behind in renewable energy consumption, even as the country’s circumstances give room to generate more clean energy. “As an island, Malta has not exploited the possibility of generating energy from wind, sun and waves. As it has no natural resources of fossil fuels, it has to import natural gas and oil,” the report said. Despite this, the report confirmed that Malta has significantly improved its renewable energy consumption as in 2008 it was generating only 0.2% of renewable energy and in 2020 it generated 10.7%. However, it remained one of the countries in the European Union that generates the least renewable energy. Last June, the NGO Friends of the Earth Malta (FoE Malta) said that while Malta is facing the climate problem, it should develop an ambitious energy policy and switch from the use of fossil fuels to investments in renewable energies. The Maltese were the most in the EU with 29.3% reporting environmental problems or pollution. It was also noted that Malta is the country in the EU that has recycled the least waste even though it has improved this rate over the past decade.

– Photo: Agenzia Fotogramma –
(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – A group of 27 asylum seekers were brought to Malta after they were rescued by two commercial vessels. Oil tanker NS Lion and commercial vessel Seastar Victory were instructed to rescue the 27 individuals in distress. Non-governmental organisation Alarm Phone said 63 individuals who were on two different vessels had been rescued and taken to Malta and Catania. However, there was no news about three more boats that left from Libya and 18 boats that had left from Tunisia. Meanwhile, Amnesty International is urging Malta to launch an independent public inquiry into violations of the rights of migrants and refugees at sea in its search-and-rescue area, amid strong concerns about Maltàs failure to safeguard such rights. The international NGO made its call for a public inquiry “with terms of reference and members able to command the trust of civil society,” as it made its submissions for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Malta set to take place in January-February 2024. In its submissions, it emphasised the need for prompt action as it observed that that “the scale and gravity of the human rights violations against refugees and migrants documented in the period under review indicate that there was a marked regression in the level of respect for their rights.”
foto: Agenzia Fotogramma

(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Malta has registered for the third consecutive year a strong sea heatwave that exceeded 30 degrees and which was longer and more intense. This was confirmed by the use of satellite data and numerical models to measure the tempretaure situation at sea.
Aldro Drago, an oceanography professor was quoted by the Times of Malta that the sea surface teperature marked a 5°C rise over the average 25.5°C of the past three decades. The sea water hit its warmest temperature at the beginning of the last week of July, remaining at almost 31°C for the entire day.
The lecturer at the Institute of Engineering and Transport of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology confirmed the warmenst tempretures were mostly in the south of Malta. “Measured at Marsaxlokk, the high temperatures were not consistent around the island due to a number of variables including currents.”
The phenomenon was also recorded in the Tyrrhenian Sea between Sicily and mainland Italy, and off the Tunisian coast, where temperatures rose to 32°C, according to the satellite data.
Among its impacts on marine life was the higher exposure of fish that do not move – such as those in farms – to illness, if not death. Their metabolism is faster in warmer water, meaning they need more oxygen, but this declines in higher temperatures. Coastal species and immobile creatures on the seabed in shallower waters also suffered the same effects. Reproduction could also be impacted, with autumn spawning being retarded if the sea was warmer in summer.

foto: Agenzia Fotogramma

(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS) – Authorities in Malta have intercepted 97 kilos of cocaine with a street value of over €11 million.
The cocaine was found hidden in a merchant ship that had just docked at the Malta Freeport in Marsaxlokk. The vessel is registered in Portugal and left the Panamanian port of Colon on 24 July for the Gioia Tauro port in Italy.
A random inspection on Sunday morning by divers of a security company engaged by the agents of the vessel noticed a large number of packets wrapped in plastic in a compartment at the bottom of the ship.
The divers informed the authorities and after the packets were analysed, it was discovered that they were filled with cocaine.
The merchant vessel arrived in Malta on Saturday evening, but police said that the drugs do not seem to have been destinated for Malta.
Colòn’s free trade zone was meant to be hub for the Americas but it has become a byword for drugs, gangs and violence. Last November Europol arrested 49 members of a super-cartel centred on Dubai and accounting for about a third of Europès cocaine supply.
According to Panamanian officials, only 2% of cargo is passed through a container scanner designed to detect contraband. Meanwhile, underwater, divers weld long metal containers stuffed with cocaine to the hulls of cargo ships. The majority of shipments intercepted by police in 2022 and 2023 were destined for Europe.
Photo: Malta Police Force
(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews

LA VALLETTA (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The German NGO Sea Watch confirmed that two groups of migrants who were in distress on two seperate boats in Central Mediterranean were interecepted by Haftar’s Libyan militia and were taken back to Libya.
It was reported that the aircraft Seabird operated by the German NGO spotted two boats with around 100 migrants on board. An alert for a a rescue operation was sent to the NGO Open Arms. While Open Arms was en route to rescue the two boats with 100 migrants, another distress call with people on board another boat between Malta and Sicily was recieved, with Open Arms had to prioritize its rescue mission to save the group of 24 migrants. The migrants were adrift on board a boat after the engine stopped.
Sea Watch confirmed “by the time Open Arms reached the initial two cases, the Libyan coast guard had already intercepted both boats and threatened Open Arms to leave the area.”
Meanwhile, the international NGO Alarm Phone reported another distress case of migrants who were in serious difficulties. It said that “when the aircraft SeaBird arrived, we saw the boat ablaza and the Tareq Bin Zayed heading back to Libya with the migrants onboard”. The military vessel Tareq Bin Zayed belongs to Haftar’s military forces.
-photo Agenzia Fotogramma –
(ITALPRESS)

Source: medNews

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The annual inflation in Malta during the month of July continued to be over the eurozone average. This was confirmed by the Eurostat agency in its latest data released recently. Eurozone annual inflation this month was 5.3% while Maltàs rate was 5.7%. The main components of eurozone inflation were food, alcohol & tobacco (10.8%, compared with 11.6% in June), followed by services (5.6%, compared with 5.4% in June), non-energy industrial goods (5%, compared with 5.5% in June) and energy (-6.1%, compared with 5.6% in June). The energy component is practically insignificant in Maltàs case since energy prices have been frozen, with the government covering higher prices through subsidies. Annual inflation in Malta has nudged higher than the eurozone average since May, as international oil prices started to fall.
In April, the average annual euro area inflation was 7% while Maltàs was 6.4%. Maltàs inflation was also higher than the Eurozone average for all previous months of the year.
In January, Eurozone annual inflation stood at 8.8% while Maltàs was 6.8%.

– photo: Angezia Fotogramma –
(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews

ROME (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The President of Italy together with the Presidents of Croatia, Greece, Malta and Slovenia signed a joint appeal following a meeting in Rome on climate change described by the five head of states as an “emergency”.
“As expected, the climate crisis has arrived and has reached explosive dimensions, so much so that we are now talking about ‘state of climate emergency’”, declared the five leaders. They referred to what the Secretary General of United Nations said recently last month where he called the current crisis as one state of “global boiling”.
The appeal refers to the effects of climate change which “are visible especially in our region, the Mediterranean, that is badly affected and at immediate risk not only of scarcity of water and electricity, but also of floods, widespread waves of heat, fires and desertification. Extreme natural phenomena are destroying the ecosystem and threatening our daily life, our lifestyle”.
The climate appeal was signed by the President of Italy Sergio Mattarella, together with the presidents of Croatia Zoran Milanovic, of Greece Katerina Sakellaropoulou of Malta George Vella, Portugal’s Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Slovenia’s NataÜa Pirc Musar.
“There’s no more time to waste, there’s no more time to compromise for political or economic reasons. It is imperative to act and take urgent and effective action. All Mediterranean countries must coordinate and react, engage in one collective effort to halt and reverse the effects of climate crisis”.
“It is the duty of all of us” they underlined, “to take action in this direction and adopt concrete policies aimed at this effort. Raise awareness, educate and inspire in all the ethics of environmental responsibility. Not just for the present, but also for the future of our children and generations to come. The heads of state of the following Mediterranean countries and members of the Arraiolos Group are committed to fully support joint action initiatives and do appeal to the European Union, to the other Mediterranean countries and to the international community to keep this theme at the top of their political agenda”, concludes the appeal.
– photo Quirinale –
(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The United Nations called for an immediate end to the expulsions of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from Tunisia to the borders with Libya and Algeria. “We are deeply concerned about the expulsion of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from Tunisia to the borders with Libya and also Algeria,” UN deputy spokesperson declared at the UN headquarters in New York. “Several have died at the border with Libya and hundreds including pregnant women and children reportedly remain stranded in extremely dire conditions with little access to food and water. All refugees and asylum seekers must be protected and treated with dignity and full respect for their human rights regardless of their status, and in accordance with international human rights and refugee law,” he added.
Meanwhile, Libyan border guards have found the bodies of six African migrants in the desert, according to the Interior Ministry. The news comes just one week after a video circulated online of a Libyan border guard giving water to black African migrants who had been dumped in the middle of the desert by Tunisian authorities. Tunisian police and military have been rounding up black African migrants in the country, mainly in the port city of Sfax, and dumping them on the border with Algeria and Libya. According to a recent report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW), many of them had been beaten severely, some had been tortured and the women were subject to sexual violence.
(ITALPRESS).
– photo credit Agenzia Fotogramma –

Source: medNews

LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The Maltese health authorities confirmed that at least 21 people in Malta died in July suffering symptoms of heat exhaustion and dehydration as Malta and Gozo were hit by a heatwave. The temperature peaked on Monday 23 July at 42.7°C, with health authorities previously confirming that at least four people died of heat-related issues.
“Throughout July 2023, 21 deaths were registered with the National Mortality Register indicating dehydration and hypothermia as the main cause of death on the death certificate,’ the health ministry said. It added their ages ranged between 52 and 97 years old. The deaths were recorded as Malta struggled through a heatwave coupled with a series of power cuts lasting days at a time in some localities. Meanwhile, another long heatwave is expected in mid-August.

– photo Doi –
(ITALPRESS).

Source: medNews