WATCH: Maltese Army Ferries Out Food And Water To Stranded Migrants
The Armed Forces of Malta has uploaded a video of soldiers delivering food and water to the hundreds of migrants on board the MV Aquarius – a rescue ship at the centre of a recent diplomatic spat between Malta and Italy.
The AFM’s intervention, carried out yesterday afternoon, was a timely one as the ship was fast running out of supplies.
“Nobody asked us to deliver them supplies, but we delivered them anyway because we understood the difficulty of the situation,” Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in Parliament last night. “Without prejudicing our own situation, Malta is always ready to offer humanitarian aid, including medical evacuations.”
The 629 migrants on board the MV Aquarius, a ship run by the French NGO SOS Méditerranée, have been transferred onto four smaller Italian boats. The boats will soon charter a course to Spain, whose new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said he feels obliged on a humanitarian level to welcome them in.