A/HRC/47/30 rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance, sexual and gender-based violence, exploitation and trafficking.81 74. The authorities of Malta have reportedly conducted pushback practices, including an incident leading to the collective expulsion at sea of 51 migrants, via private vessels, and to the death of 12 migrants, reportedly due to the delay of search and rescue operations in 2020.82 A recent set of measures has been reported, allegedly to avoid assisting migrants, 83 which includes arranging unlawful pushbacks to Libya, diverting boats towards Italy rather than rescuing people in distress, unlawfully detaining hundreds of people on ill-equipped ferries offshore, and signing a new agreement with Libya to prevent people from reaching Malta.84 75. The absence of regional responsibility-sharing mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific region to address maritime movements in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea has led to delays in search and rescue, to the interception and pushback of boats carrying Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers, leaving them to confront risks of unseaworthy vessels, adverse weather conditions and shortages of food and water, and to physical and sexual abuse by smugglers. At least 200 lost their lives in 2020.85 Appeals to Governments in the region to immediately search for, rescue and disembark Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers who were left in distress on the Andaman Sea were made in early 2021.86 Malaysian authorities reportedly turned away more than 300 Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers arriving on the country’s shores on the grounds of risk of COVID-19 transmission.87 5. Frontex operations 76. During joint operations at the external borders of the European Union, serious claims of Frontex’s implication in pushbacks have been made, alleging that Frontex-operated surveillance technology on board aerial assets 88 and vessels 89 may have been misused to facilitate pushbacks to Turkey and Libya. Allegations of Frontex’s implication in pushbacks90 have prompted members of the European Parliament to establish a working group to 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 14 See, for example, the detailed findings of the investigation by OHCHR on Libya (A/HRC/31/CRP.3), 15 February 2016, available from www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session31/Pages/ListReports.aspx. See MLT 2/2020, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25753, and the response by Malta, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=35968; and the submissions by Human Rights Watch and Sea-Watch. Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, “Commissioner urges Malta to meet its obligations to save lives at sea, ensure prompt and safe disembarkation, and investigate allegations of delay or non-response to situations of distress”, 11 May 2020, available at www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/commissioner-urges-malta-to-meet-its-obligations-to-save-livesat-sea-ensure-prompt-and-safe-disembarkation-and-investigate-allegations-of-delay-or-no. Malta signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Libya in 2020 “on combating illegal immigration”. See the submission by Sea-Watch; see also MLT 1/2020, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25394, and the response by Malta, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=35584. UNHCR, “Update on UNHCR’s operations in Asia and the Pacific” (seventy-first session, 25 September 2020), available at www.unhcr.org/uk/excom/announce/5f6dee594/asia-andpacific.html?query=pushback. See www.unhcr.org/news/press/2021/2/603339354/unhcr-appeals-for-immediate-rescue-of-rohingyarefugees-in-distress-on.html. Submission by Human Rights Watch. Submission by Sea-Watch. Submission by the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants. A/75/590, para. 12.