At least 200 illegal Eritrean, Somali and Central African immigrants aboard a boat continued on Monday to be adrift in rough waters between Italy and Malta for the third day. However, it now seems that an Italian warship has been sent to rescue them since the Libyan warship that was supposed to do so did not turn up.

The Italian oil tanker ‘Antignano’, however, has provided help to the migrants on the orders of the Italian coastguard. The migrants are due to be escorted to Italian waters, but some Italian news reports say the boat still risks being returned to Libya, where it departed from.

The boat was spotted after one of the passengers sent an SOS from his satellite phone last Friday via a call to Eritrean family members in Italy, who then alerted the authorities.

An AFM spokesman denied Italian media reports that Malta was involved in the operation or that Malta refused to intervene, stating that there was no need for Maltese intervention as the sea was becoming calmer and the situation was being taken care of.

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