Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has called the President of the European Council Donald Tusk to urge that the next European Council summit set a focus on migration. The phone call, which occurred Thursday evening, is the fourth conversation Muscat has had with a European leader regarding migration this week alone.

The phone call came as the ship Aquarius, which is currently carrying 629 migrants, announced it was making a detour to Sardinia. French charity SOS Mediterranee, who is administering the ship, said the detour was being done to “protect the ship from the otherwise unbearable bad weather for the people on board, who are exhausted, suffering from shock and seasickness”.

In response, Italy’s Matteo Salvini said the migrants on the Aquarius are “going on a cruise”

The far-right interior minister said that he fully expected the ship, which is being accompanied by two Italian vessels, to arrive in Valencia, Spain on Saturday. “Of course, it’s not as if they can now decide where to start and finish the cruise,” he said of the ship.

The Aquarius row between Italy and Malta has been deemed a symbol of the failure of the European Union

629 migrants were stuck in the middle of the Mediterranean after Italy and Malta both refused to allow the ship to dock in their ports and disembark the migrants for processing. Spain eventually stepped in to offer their port to the migrants.

On Thursday, the same day as the ship had to divert to Italy and Muscat called Tusk, Pope Francis called for “the entire international community” to help “isolated and vulnerable” migrants and refugees.

Prime Minister Muscat called the EU’s Tusk after also having called Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday.

The next European Council summit is set for the 28th and 29th of June, with the topics of migration, security and defence, and economic and finance to be high on the agenda.

The summit is scheduled to take place between June 28 and 29, with European leaders expected to focus on migration, security and defence, as well as “economic and financial affairs”.

What do you think of the current migration situation?

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Johnathan Cilia

Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]