The fishing boat carrying 60 migrants left Lebanon's coast near the city of Tripoli ten days ago, but began taking on water en route to Italy.
- They are trying to remove the water that is leaking in with the help of buckets, that is all they have, the brother of one of the migrants told AP.
Earlier this week, they reportedly told their relatives that they had been without water, food and formula for seven days.
Relatives have lost contact with the boat
With the help of a satellite phone, they have been able to keep in touch with relatives and aid organizations, but contact was lost during the night of Tuesday.
The boat is now near Malta.
According to the organization Alarm Phone, which helps connect rescue workers with migrants in distress at sea, Maltese authorities have been informed of the boat, but have not announced a rescue operation.
Malta has also not allowed a commercial cargo ship to rescue the migrants, according to the organisation.
- Instead of coordinating a rescue operation, they have deliberately left these 60 people in distress at sea for several days, says Maurice Stierl from Alarm Phone.
- We hope that reports of deaths will prove to be incorrect, but we are extremely concerned about this group of people, he continues.