The Prime Minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, and the Prime Minister of Italy, Giuseppe Conte, had a telephone conversation on the developing situation of the vessel Aquarius on Sunday evening.
Prime Minister Muscat reiterated that Malta is acting in full conformity with its international obligations. As such Malta will not take the said vessel in its ports.
Nevertheless, without prejudice to its position, and in conformity with its policy throughout the past years, Malta has always been willing, where possible, to carry out emergency medical evacuations of persons requiring urgent medical care for humanitarian reasons.
“In the meantime,” it said, “the Maltese government is concerned at the Italian authorities’ directions being given to Aquarius on the high seas which go against international rules, and risk creating a dangerous situation for all those involved.”
In a statement, Malta said the rescue by NGO boat Aquarius was conducted in the Libyan Search and Rescue region and coordinated by Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) Rome.
TgCom 24 reported that last night, Conte, Salvini, Di Maio and Giorgetti held a high level meeting, at the end of which the Italian premier also confirmed that he spoke personally with his Maltese counterpart, but without achieving the desired results.
“I asked the Maltese Prime Minister to take care of at least humanitarian assistance to people in distress on the Aquarius, but Muscat did not assure any intervention”, explained Conte, underlining that “the umpteenth unavailability of Malta is confirmed , and therefore of Europe, to intervene and take responsibility for the emergency “.
Di Maio said “Malta’s answer? It demonstrates what we have always said: while we have made ourselves of an extraordinary emergency they make their own business”.
Conte then announced that he had ordered the dispatch of two patrol boats with doctors on board ready to intervene in order to guarantee the health of those on board the Aquarius.
“Italy finds itself facing the immigration emergency in total solitude.The problem was also posed by me throughout the G7 to all European partners in these last days where I anticipated that migration flows must be managed in a shared way. also for what concerns all the initiatives aimed at preventing departure The Dublin regulation must be radically changed “, Conte concluded.
The Ambassador of Malta in Italy, Vanessa Frazier, told Tgcom24 that the Maltese government gave the ship the opportunity to disembark when it was near the Maltese port, but we gave permission but the captain decided not to land in La Valletta because of the adverse weather conditions “.
Doctors Without Frontiers in a statement said that it “fears that the politics of the European states is placed above the lives of people.The priority must be the safety and well-being of those on board. ”
The UNHCR appealed to states and actors involved in the issue to find rapid solutions that allow the Aquarius migrants and refugees to be disembarked in a safe and fast way.The slowdown in operations puts the health of hundreds of people in urgent need of assistance at risk.”
The Aquarius has now received instructions from the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre to standby in our current position which is 35 nautical miles from #Italy and 27 nautical miles from Malta.
EuroNews Paris correspondent Anelise Borges who was on board the Aquarius ship, reported that “This has become a high-level political negotiation,” said Anelise. “The teams here onboard tell us that, for now, the situation onboard is under control. They can keep the people here, they have enough water and food for everybody, but this is a very delicate situation.”
“There are more than 600 people onboard, they are tired, they want to get to safety, there is, of course, a lot of tension among them because they are not sure what is going to happen,” she added.
Anelise praised the teams of staff on the vessel: “The teams here are very calm, they say the situation is under control and we continue heading north towards the east part of Malta and towards Italy.”
MSF Sea Project Coordinator Aloys Vimard told Euronews that his team was “well prepared” and the boat contained enough food and water to house its passengers for between two and three days.
Nevertheless, he hoped the 629 people rescued can be transferred to a port of safety as soon as possible.
The sources on which this dispatch is based include :TgCom24, Government of Malta, Corriere della Sera, Ansa, Euronews, Twitter Feed,Times of Malta, Malta Independent and Malta Today.
