The number of persons on board the Captain Morgan vessel stationed outside of Malta’s territorial waters has almost tripled overnight.

Lovin Malta is informed that last night, Malta coordinated a rescue mission of two boats carrying 123 migrants who encountered difficulty in the country’s search and rescue zone.

On the first boat, there were 45 people, 39 of whom were men. There were three pregnant women and three young children on board.

The second was carrying 78 migrants. Sixty-eight were men, and five were women, one of whom is pregnant. There were also five children.

The pregnant women, children, and their fathers are being taken to Malta. They will remain in quarantine for two weeks inside the closed centre.

Portugal is ready to accept 6 of the migrants on board. No other EU member state has committed to the relocation of the asylum seekers.

Malta’s ports remained closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the other 105 will go onboard the Captain Morgan vessel.

There were 57 migrants on board the Captain Morgan ship before the new arrivals.

There are a further 79 migrants on the MV Marina near the Lampedusa coast.