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Minister tells court about government efforts 'to rescue lives at sea' timesofmalta.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesofmalta.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Malta government paid for Libya pushbacks ‘three to four’ times, shipper reveals Carmelo Grech, the owner of the Libyan-flagged fishing vessel Dar Es Salaam 1 has revealed that the Maltese government paid for pushbacks multiple times 19 May 2021, 3:49pm by Matthew Agius The Maltese government paid for pushbacks by the Dar Es Salaam 1 “three to four times”, the vessel’s owner has told a judge this afternoon. Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff is hearing the case against Prime Minister Robert Abela, National Security and Law Enforcement Minister Byron Camilleri and AFM Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi, filed by lawyers Paul Borg Olivier and Eve Borg Costanzi on behalf of 52 would-be asylum seekers who had been pushed back to Libya in the Spring of 2020. ....
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. ....
Newsbook Monique Agius The government paid Dar Es Salaam 1, a Libyan-flagged fishing vessel, “three to four” times for pushbacks, the vessel’s owner told the court on Wednesday afternoon. Carmelo Grech was one of the witnesses who took the stand on Wednesday in the case filed by a group of asylum seekers who had been pushed back to Libya in April 2020 against Prime Minister Robert Abela, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri and AFM Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi. The witness told the court that Dar Es Salaam was moored in the Grand Harbour for four to six weeks when he was approached by an unidentified AFM representative. Grech said the AFM representative had given him a set of coordinates of a dinghy, however, this was not found at first. ....