A search and rescue mission coordinator from the Armed Forces has told a court that he received orders from his superiors for the pushback of a boatload of migr
Former OPM official Neville Gafá has claimed that he was “operating under Libyan jurisdiction” when he coordinated a pushback of migrants at Malta’s request on Easter Sunday last year.
Gafá, who is currently self-employed since resigning his public post last year, was testifying on Wednesday in constitutional proceedings filed by lawyer Paul Borg Olivier on behalf of 52 asylum seekers.
The asylum seekers are suing the Maltese state, claiming their rights were breached when they were pushed back to Libya in April 2020 by a private, Libyan-registered fishing vessel.
NGO AlarmPhone had alerted Maltese authorities to the fate of a dinghy of migrants heading to the Maltese search and rescue zone.