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A member of the Alarm Phone hotline that tries to organise help for boat people in distress, says some national authorities are trying to avoid responsibility for rescuing stricken vessels. Dr. Maurice Stierl, who is a researcher in migration at Germany's Osnabruck University and part of Alarm Phone, says the group had picked up the distress signal from a boat that had been at sea for five days, but had run into trouble and was taking in water while stranded between Greece and Malta. The vessel had departed from Libya with around 400 people on board, including children and a pregnant woman. Alarm Phone alerted officials and a nearby merchant ship was able to supply fuel but was ordered by Malta not to conduct a rescue operation. The fishing boat and migrants were diverted towards Italy. (Photo: A fishing boat with 400 migrants on board, adrift between Greece and Malta. Credit: SEA-WATCH/Reuters.)
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