Thirty-seven civil society organisations on Tuesday expressed concern about the fate of over 100 men, women and children reportedly in distress at sea. Times of Malta reported on Sunday that a group of 110 people may be unaccounted for, with emergency hotline NGO Alarm Phone accusing the Armed Forces of Malta of ordering a rescue vessel to leave the scene of the drifting boat the migrants were in. In a statement, the 37 organisations noted that these people were “in distress in Malta’s search and rescue zone” in the past days and that a ship that was willing to rescue them, “was prevented from doing so by Malta”.