Malta offers safe harbour to rescue boat stranded in Mediterranean

Malta on Tuesday agreed to let a private rescue ship dock on the island, with the 141 migrants it is carrying to be distributed among five European Union nations in what was described as a "responsibility-sharing exercise."

The migrants were plucked to safety by the aid boat Aquarius in two separate operations in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya on Friday. The boat was reportedly about 50 kilometres from Malta on Tuesday afternoon when the deal was announced.

"Malta will be making a concession allowing the vessel to enter its ports, despite having no legal obligation to do so," the Maltese government said in a statement.

It said Malta will serve as a logistical base and that all the migrants will be distributed among France, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain.

Previously this summer, Malta had allowed another private aid group's rescue vessel to dock, also on the condition other nations take the migrants, although in that case, Malta also agreed to take some.

Malta also noted that on Monday, it had rescued 114 people at sea, with 60 of them destined to go to other EU nations as part of co-operation in the bloc.

Aquarius had been waiting for safe harbour after appealing to Italy and Malta.

Italy's new populist government is refusing to allow any private rescue ships to dock, saying the country has done more than its share by allowing some 600,000 rescued migrants to disembark in previous years.

Malta said the dilemma over the fate of the migrants saved by Aquarius was resolved following French-Maltese discussions, and the agreement took shape "with the support of the European Commission" to participate in a "responsibility-sharing exercise."

Italy's ruling coalition, which includes an anti-migrant party, has been lobbying for just such co-operation since it took power in June.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted thanks to Malta "for its humanitarian gesture" and said France offers its full solidarity.

France will take 60 of the migrants, including some from the group rescued by Malta on Monday.

Portugal, which will take 30 from those aboard Aquarius and the other boats, was the first country to say it could take in some of them. Spain agreed to take 60.

Germany said it would take up to 50 being brought to Malta.

SOS Mediterrané​e and Doctors Without Borders, the two French aid groups operating the vessel, said that many aboard are weak and malnourished. Many rescued migrants say they received scanty rations while detained, often for months, in Libya, awaiting opportunity to depart aboard human traffickers' unseaworthy boats. Sixty-seven of those rescued are unaccompanied minors.

Many aboard Aquarius are originally from Eritrea and Somalia.

Sophie Beau, vice president of SOS Mediterrané​e's international network, told reporters that both her group and Doctors Without Borders have been warning European authorities for two months of the need for a mechanism to avoid standoffs at sea.

The top EU migration official, Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, commended the latest countries to offer to take some of those rescue vessels reaching Malta, but warned: "We cannot rely on ad-hoc arrangements." Calling for "sustainable solutions," he added that it wasn't the "responsibility of one or a few member states only, but of the European Union as a whole."

Agreement follows public outcry

France's offer Tuesday followed pleas from authorities in Corsica and other French areas on the Mediterranean to help Aquarius.

Among them was Jean-Guy Talamoni, president of Corsica's local assembly. "It's time [Europe] wakes up and that everyone takes their share of responsibility," he told BFM-TV. "In the meantime, there are emergency situations, and you have to deal with them."

Earlier in the summer, Malta agreed to give safe harbour to a German aid group's vessel Lifeline, but only after agreement that the 234 rescued migrants aboard would be distributed among Italy, Malta and seven other countries. So far, 117 of the asylum seekers have left Malta.

Lifeline's German captain of the Lifeline has pleaded not guilty in a Maltese court to charges he entered the island nation's waters illegally and without proper registration.

Many of the migrants are fleeing poverty in Africa and Asia and eventually denied asylum, unlike those escaping wars or persecution.

Arrivals into Europe of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa numbered just over 61,500 through Aug. 12, with 1,524 deaths reported, the UN migration agency said Tuesday.

That compares with more than 118,000 arrivals through the same period last year and 265,640 in 2016.

Many migrants this year have headed to Spain, on what is known as the Western Mediterranean route, with 25,101 arrivals there, the agency said. Italy received 19,231, the second highest number.

In June, Spain allowed the Aquarius to dock at Valencia's port after the rescue vessel, with 629 migrants aboard, was denied safe harbour by Italy and Malta.