ROME, Aug 23 (NNN-ANSA) — The 356 migrants aboard the French NGO ship Ocean Viking will be shared among six European Union countries, Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday.
France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania will take them in, said Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Twitter.
Malta will put them onto navy ships in international waters and bring them to Malta, after which they will be redistributed, he said.
“Not one will remain in Malta”, he said.
The accord was reached after talks with the European Commission and member States including France and Germany, Muscat said.
The migrants aboard Ocean Viking, at sea for two weeks, have only five days of food supplies left, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said earlier Friday.
Of the 356 migrants, 103 are children, it said. “Still no safe port has been assigned”, MSF said.
“We are concerned about the rapid worsening of the state of mental health of the persons on board”.
The ship has been barred from docking in Italian ports under outgoing interior minister and anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini’s policy of closing Italian ports to migrant rescue NGO run ships.
Italy’s prison inmates watchdog launched an appeal to his colleagues in Norway and Malta, saying “joint work is needed”.
–NNN-ANSA
