Horrific phone calls which reveal how the Italian Coast Guard let dozens of refugees drown in the Mediterranean Sea in 2013, have been obtained by an Italian newspaper. 
 
 In previously unheard audio, Italian authorities tell a caller from the sinking refugee ship to "call Malta," despite an Italian Navy patrol boat being miles away. 
 
 As the fishing boat began to take on water, it was around 61 miles away from the Italian island of Lampedusa and within the territorial waters of Malta, which was 118 miles away. 
 
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 During the distress call, released by the Italian magazine L'Espresso, a man who identifies himself as a Syrian doctor named Mohamed Jammo can be heard asking for help as he tells authorities the boat is taking on water and sinking. 
 
 "Please hurry," Mr Jammo repeats. "The boat is going down." 
 
 When he later calls the Coast Guard to ask if they had sent anyone, an operator tells Mr Jammo to call Malta. 
 
 "Because you are near Malta," the man explained. "Call Malta directly very quickly, they are close, OK?" 
 
 Mr Jammo then called the Italian Coast Guard again to tell them he had called Malta and been told the boat was closer to Lampadusa than Malta. 
 
 "We are dying, please," he added. 
 
 But the operator repeated the instruction, telling him: "You have to call Malta, sir." 
 
 During the ordeal, the Italian Navy's patrol boat Libra was awaiting orders between 10 to 19 miles away. 
 
 Shape Created with Sketch. Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Refugee crisis - in pictures 1/27 A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images 2/27 Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea 3/27 Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images 4/27 Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border 5/27 Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. 6/27 A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images 7/27 A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany 8/27 Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees 9/27 A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district 10/27 Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. 11/27 A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos 12/27 A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said 13/27 Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year 14/27 The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos 15/27 Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images 16/27 A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images 17/27 Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters 18/27 An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images 19/27 A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA 20/27 A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images 21/27 Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images 22/27 People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP 23/27 Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images 24/27 An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images 25/27 A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA 26/27 Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images 27/27 Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily. 1/27 A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images 2/27 Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea 3/27 Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images 4/27 Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border 5/27 Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. 6/27 A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images 7/27 A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany 8/27 Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees 9/27 A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district 10/27 Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. 11/27 A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos 12/27 A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said 13/27 Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year 14/27 The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos 15/27 Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images 16/27 A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images 17/27 Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters 18/27 An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images 19/27 A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA 20/27 A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images 21/27 Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images 22/27 People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP 23/27 Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images 24/27 An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images 25/27 A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA 26/27 Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images 27/27 Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily. 
 
 In a call to the operations room of the Armed Forces of Malta, an Italian coast guard operator voiced his concern that if the patrol boat was dispatched it would have to transfer the refugees to the nearest coast, which would have been Lampedusa. 
 
 "I think it is not the best way to operate," he explains, going on to say it would mean the loss of an "asset in the area" to spot other "targets," presumably refugee boats. 
 
 The Maltese authorities clearly told the Italian Coast Guard their navy's boat was the closest to the refugees. 
 
 Five hours after Mr Jammo's initial call to the Italian Coast Guard, the fishing boat capsized, sending over 260 people, including 60 children, into the Mediterranean Sea. 
 
 There is yet to be an official investigation into the 11 October sinking, with reports stating at least 34 refugees were confirmed dead. 
 
 Around 147 survivors were taken to Malta and a further 56 taken to Italy. 
 
 Some of the Syrian refugees reported the boat had been fired upon by Libyan militiamen during a trafficking gang dispute. 
 
 The Independent has contacted the Italian Coast Guard for comment. 
 
 After the tragedy, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscarat complained about a lack of action from other European countries. 
 
 "As things stand we are building a cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea," he warned. ||||| 
 
 An Italian navy vessel nears an overcrowded boat of migrants that capsized off Libya on May 25, 2016. (Marina Militare via Agence France-Presse/Getty Images) 
 
 MILAN — Almost four years ago, 268 Syrian refugees — including 60 children — lost their lives in a shipwreck about 60 miles south of Lampedusa, a small Italian island that sits between Sicily and Tunisia. It was considered one of the worst tragedies of the European refugee crisis, but a leaked audiotape published Monday by the magazine L’Espresso suggested that Italian authorities let the Syrians drown despite being alerted several hours earlier that the refugees’ ship was in danger. 
 
 On the evening of Oct. 10, 2013, a ship carrying at least 480 people left Zuwarah, in northwestern Libya, headed for Lampedusa. Most of the passengers were Syrians who had left their country for Libya when conflict erupted at home in 2011, and were then forced to flee Libya when fighting broke out there as well. 
 
 Their ship sailed until 5 p.m. the next day, when it capsized 61 nautical miles south of Lampedusa. While some of the passengers were rescued by Italian and Maltese ships, the majority died before rescuers arrived. The incident caused a media uproar that contributed to the creation of “Mare Nostrum,” the now-defunct Italian navy search-and-rescue operation (that program was replaced in late 2014 by a smaller-scale E.U. program called “Triton”). 
 
 But, until Monday, the public did not know that the refugees had alerted Italian authorities that they were in distress as early as five hours before their ship sank. Even though the refugees’ ship called the Italian coast guard and warned that it was floating adrift, taking on water and had wounded children aboard, Italian authorities refused to intervene for several hours. 
 
 L’Espresso published five recordings of separate telephone conversations from the day of the incident. In the first, at 12:39 p.m., passenger Mohanned Jammo, a doctor who survived the shipwreck and who had a smartphone with him, calls the headquarters of the Italian coast guard in Rome asking for help. “The boat is going down” and “water is coming into it,” he says. A woman can be heard asking for his position, which he gives. 
 
 At 1:17 p.m., Jammo calls again, asking if the coast guard has sent anyone. He is answered by a man who tells him to call Malta instead. “You are near Malta,” the man claims. In truth, the ship was 61 nautical miles from Lampedusa — but 118 nautical miles from Malta. 
 
 In a third conversation, at 1:48 p.m., Jammo again calls the coast guard, saying he called Maltese authorities and was told he is closer to Lampedusa. “Lampedusa is Italy?” he asks. “We are dying, please.” 
 
 Although the ship was closer to Italian soil, it was in an area of international waters where Malta holds responsibility for search-and-rescue missions under European agreements. But, at the time, Italy had a military vessel about 20 nautical miles from the refugees’ ship, while Malta’s closest ship was 70 nautical miles away. Fabrizio Gatti, the investigative reporter who obtained the recordings, said in a telephone conversation with The Washington Post that the Italian ship, as the closest ship able to help, was obligated to rescue the refugees under international maritime law. 
 
 Gatti said he obtained the recordings from “sources in Malta,” who leaked the tapes on the condition of anonymity. He verified the tapes by comparing them with other recordings in possession of Italy’s judicial authorities, who are leading an investigation into the incident. Gatti argued that the tapes show that Italian authorities usually delayed in trying to rescue ships rather than moving immediately. 
 
 Gatti refused to speculate about the political implications of the tapes, but the leak comes at a time when anti-refugee sentiment is running high in Italy and nongovernmental organizations that help rescue migrants at sea have been accused of encouraging illegal immigration. 
 
 A fourth tape shows that Maltese authorities were willing to take command of the rescue mission but asked their Italian counterparts to send their nearby ship. The Italians refused. 
 
 In a gut-wrenching conversation at 4:44 p.m., an Italian coast guard officer tells the Maltese navy that Italy would not move the ship because it “represents an important asset in order to spot new targets” — and because that would put Italy “in charge of transfer to the nearest coast.” 
 
 At that point, Malta sent a surveillance plane to check on the refugees. At 5:07 p.m., the Maltese called the Italians, telling them that the refugees’ ship had capsized. They urged the Italians to send their ship because their own would not arrive in time to save the Syrians. Only then did Italy agree to send its ship. 
 
 By then, it was too late. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Over 1,000 migrants and refugees have died crossing the Mediterranean so far this year 
 
 Italy may require asylum seekers to do community service ||||| The hundreds on board the sinking boat spent five hours waiting for help. This is a file photo. Photo: Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi 
 
 Updated 12.40pm 
 
 By 1.48pm, Mohammed Jammo was on the verge of despair. 
 
 "We are dying, please! Don't abandon us! We have no captain, he ran away. I have no credit on my phone, please help," he pleaded with an official at Italy's rescue coordination centre in Rome. 
 
 By that time, Mr Jammo - a self-described Syrian doctor - and the hundreds of men, women and children aboard the rickety boat some 60 nautical miles south of Lampedusa had been waiting more than an hour for help to arrive. 
 
 The reply from Rome was chilling. "Yes, yes. You have to call Malta. You have to call Malta." 
 
 It would take a further four hours for a rescue vessel to make it to their position, despite an Italian warship being situated just an hour-and-a-half away. By then, Mr Jammo and the boat's other passengers were in the water. Hundreds were dead. 
 
 Audio recordings released by Italian news outlet L'Espresso yesterday retell the horrific afternoon hours of October 11, 2013, when the Mediterranean claimed the lives of more than 250 people, among them 60 children. 
 
 The recordings suggest Italian maritime rescue officials brushed off pleas to rescue the hundreds aboard the boat, repeatedly telling Mr Jammo he had to ask Malta for help and insisting with Maltese officials that the warship in the vicinity could not help because its job was to "spot new targets." 
 
 Rome received the first call at 12.39pm that afternoon. 
 
 The reply from Rome was chilling. "Yes, yes. You have to call Malta. You have to call Malta. 
 
 "Please hurry, please hurry. The boat is going down. I swear to you, there is half a metre of water in the boat," Mr Jammo pleads. 
 
 Almost an hour later, at 1.17pm, Mr Jammo calls again, only to be told that he has to call Malta "because you are near Malta." 
 
 "Please go, go. Call Malta directly, very quickly, they are there, very close, ok? Please go, go," the Italian official tells the desperate doctor before hanging up. 
 
 The sinking boat was around 10 and 19 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, with Lampedusa 61 nautical miles north. Malta was almost twice as distant - some 118 nautical miles away. 
 
 'Please hurry, please hurry. We are dying': a man aboard the boat pleaded in vain. This is a file photo. Photo: Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi 
 
 "I called Malta. I gave them our position and you are closer," the Syrian man says when he calls back 30 minutes later. 
 
 "We are dying, please! We have no captain, he ran away. I have no credit on my phone, please help." 
 
 The pleas fall on deaf ears. "Yes, you have to call Malta. You have to call Malta." 
 
 At 4.44pm - more than three hours after the initial plea for help - Italian officials call their Maltese counterparts to discuss a fax sent by AFM officials asking Italy to rescue the people at sea. 
 
 The Italian official says their nearby warship could not be sent to rescue the drowning people because its task was "to spot new targets." 
 
 "I do not think this is the best way to operate, because after we don't have assets in the area to spot new targets," the Italian official tells his Maltese counterpart. 
 
 The Maltese official keeps her cool. 
 
 "The [Italian] boat is the closest one, do you understand? We have a plane in the area and it spotted the vessel. If you can't send your ship we'll have to see what we have to do. We've also told a civilian ship to try and go to the area but it's some 70 nautical miles away." 
 
 At 5.07pm - less than 20 minutes after that exchange - Malta's operations centre calls Rome to inform Italian officials that the boat has capsized and that the roughly 250 people on board are in the water. 
 
 "Ok. Is it the same boat?" comes the monotone reply. "I have passed instructions to our Mare Libra [boat]." 
 
 
 
 Almost five hours have passed since the initial SOS call. Hundreds lose their lives as a result of the dithering. Ultimately, Malta rescued 147 people, with Italy picking up 39. 
 
 The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which both Malta and Italy have ratified, explicitly requires signatory states to require ship captains to "proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress, if informed of their need of assistance, in so far as such action may be reasonably expected of him." 
 
 Malta's role 
 
 The recordings published by L'Espresso paint a horrific picture of bureaucratic wrangling and indifference costing people their life. 
 
 But the audio files do not explain why it was Italy which sent out the worldwide distress call, when the capsizing boat was drifting in Malta's search and rescue area. Under international law, countries are responsible for coordinating all rescue operations taking place in their SAR area. 
 
 Nor do they explain the hours-long delay in an AFM plane being dispatched to the area, despite Mr Jammo having already made a distress call, or the hour-long gap - from 4 to 5pm - between the time an AFM plane sighted the distressed vessel and reports of it having capsized at 5.07pm. No rescue vessels were dispatched during that time. 
 
 In a report published 11 months after the event, Amnesty International said it was "reasonable to question" whether Italy and Malta had acted promptly and done all they could to avert the tragedy. 
 
 At the time, Maltese Home Affairs officials said the sequence of events showed that AFM officials had "acted in a highly professional manner" and that it was thanks to their work that people were rescued. 
 
 The recordings released by L'Espresso appear to confirm that retelling of events, although it must be noted that Maltese authorities have never released call logs relating to the incident and have never explained why a rescue operation took so long to get underway. 
 
 It was lunchtime when Mr Jammo first dialled in a rescue call. By the time a rescue vessel reached them, night was falling. It was only once Mr Jammo and others were in the cold open sea that authorities cranked rescue operations into gear. 
 
 Almost four years have passed since that October afternoon. Italian officials have yet to conclude investigations into the case.
– Audio tapes leaked Monday reveal authorities had a chance to save the 268 Syrian refugees—including 60 children—who drowned when their boat capsized in October 2013 but instead wasted time with, as the Times of Malta puts it, "bureaucratic wrangling and indifference." Mohammed Jammo, a Syrian doctor on the doomed boat, made multiple calls to Italian and Maltese authorities up to five hours before the disaster, pleading for help, the Washington Post reports. "We are dying, please. Don't abandon us," Jammo says during one of the calls. He told authorities the boat was taking on water and there were injured children aboard. Italy had a military vessel 20 nautical miles from the sinking ship but didn't send it, instead telling Jammo to call Malta. Malta told Jammo to call Italy. The sticking point: The refugee boat was technically in waters overseen by Malta but was nearly twice as close to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the Independent reports. And Malta didn't have a vessel anywhere near as close as the Italian vessel. Italian authorities also appeared hesitant to bring the refugees to Italy. Italy eventually did send its vessel—hours after the first call from Jammo—but only after a Maltese plane confirmed the boat had capsized and there were people in the water. Amnesty International says it's "reasonable to question" whether authorities from both countries did everything they could to prevent 268 people from dying.