Malta lets rescue ship dock with 230 aboard
VALLETTA: A humanitarian ship that has had about 230 rescued migrants on board for almost a week docked in Malta yesterday, ending a standoff with Italy which refused to let the ship into one of its ports.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said seven European Union countries had offered to share the burden of the migrants with Malta. The ship Lifeline is operated by German charity Mission Lifeline.
‘‘Lifeline will be granted permission to enter a Maltese port, where procedures for identification, ascertaining their asylum eligibility, and distribution to other member states will start immediately,’’ Muscat earlier told reporters.
‘‘The Maltese Government took the lead on a solution before the situation escalated
to a humanitarian crisis,’’ he added, emphasising the small island nation was not legally bound to take in the vessel.
Lifeline is the second charity ship Italy has shut out of its ports this month after new antiimmigrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said private rescue vessels would no longer be welcome because they ‘‘cannot dictate Italy’s immigration policy’’.
Muscat said that permitting the ship to dock in Malta was a onetime, or ‘‘ad hoc’’, resolution to the standoff. While 650,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea since 2014, Malta has allowed in only those needing urgent medical care.
Italy has indicated it wants this kind of solution for sea rescues to continue.
Immigration has become an urgent political issue across the EU in recent weeks, since the new Italian Government took power this month and German Prime Minister Angela Merkel’s coalition split over the issue.
‘‘We are very proud that the crew rescued 234 people,’’ Mission Lifeline spokesman Axel Steier said as the ship approached Valletta harbour, thanking Malta for taking it in.
‘‘This situation is special because the crew was out there for a long time and it’s not normal.’’
Germany was not among the countries that agreed to take in some of the migrants on Lifeline.
Italy, Ireland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal ‘‘agreed to collaborate to offer a European solution’’, a statement from Muscat’s office said.
‘‘This is a great victory,’’ Italian Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said on Twitter, while Salvini called it ‘‘another success of the Italian Government’’.
The ship will be detained and the captain questioned, Muscat said, because of his refusal to leave the migrant boats to be intercepted by the Libyan coastguard, as had been ordered by Italian authorities.