WOULD European coastguards refuse to rescue white people stranded at sea during a storm, activists asked today as their mayday calls on behalf of 43 refugees in such a situation went ignored.

The refugee distress hotline organisation Alarm Phone was contacted by around 43 people on board a wooden boat in the Mediterranean on Sunday night.

“[The] authorities are informed,” Alarm Phone tweeted late last night. “Over the next hours, there will be a storm with two-metre high waves – there can be no delay in rescuing them!”