I never understood why Malta’s search and rescue zone is so huge. The SR zone almost reaches Greece and Crete and encompasses Lampedusa and Linosa.
The thing is that Malta’s territorial waters aren’t this big so we’re not allowed to search for oil in our SR zone.
The below article is what got me thinking. The boat mentioned in the article is closer to Greece than Malta it seems. This is not about not saving lives but trying to understand why we have such a huge SR zone.
[https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/500-people-adrift-maltese-search-rescue-zone-alarm-phone.1033469](https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/500-people-adrift-maltese-search-rescue-zone-alarm-phone.1033469)
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This is done by Maltese design. Each country can define their search and rescue zones within boundaries set by IMO based on geographical position, resources, etc.
Malta decided to have a very large area because of the Malltese age old reason: money.
We earn millions of euros per year for air traffic control charges on aircrafts which pass through the area.
Italy actually wanted us to shrink this, but the government immediately and emphatically declined.
Don’t even need to search for anyone else BC the government isn’t allowing any more immigrants into the country
The Search and Rescue zone falls within the Flight Information Region which was established post war by the British. Malta kept the area post independence. The FIR generates an income through the overflights. Malta’s responsability is to coordinate Search and Rescue operations within this area.
This SAR was left by the British. The Italians are very keen to see us reduce it (as they would benefit financially from taking it over themselves).
The reason Malta sees no need to reduce it is that Malta maintains that migrants should be taken to the nearest safe port, and not to SAR country.
Considering that Italy isn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet for migrants, an end result of losing our SAR and watching Italy do the exact thing they accuse Malta of, would not make sense.
So Malta hangs on to its SAR and maintains that migrants should be taken to the nearest safe port. It’s obviously not a solution, but neither is giving our SAR zone to Italy a solution.