Malta Will Take None Of 64 Migrants Aboard ‘Alan Kurdi’ Ship After Four EU Countries Step In
The 64 migrants aboard the ‘Alan Kurdi’ ship will be redistributed among Germany, France, Portugal and Luxembourg.
None of the migrants will remain in Malta.
The ship picked up 64 migrants off the Libyan coast on 3 April and has been refused entry by Malta, Italy and Spain. It has been in Maltese territorial waters since.
Diplomatic tensions over irregular migration have been high since an Italian government, made up of a coalition of two parties on opposite sides of the political spectrum that share a common migration policy, had declared that all Italian ports were closed to NGO vessels.
Speaking to Lovin Malta yesterday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat stood his ground and insisted it was not fair that Malta was being asked to solve a problem it did not create.
“We cannot send a signal to other countries that they can do what they want and dump the problem on Malta,” Muscat said.
The humanitarian aid ship ‘Alan Kurdi’ is named after the two-year-old Kurdish boy who drowned as his family tried to flee war-torn Syria.
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