The Maltese Navy announced Monday that it has rescued 180 migrants in the Mediterranean, spread over two boats in distress, which will be landed in Malta in the evening.
"Time is running out" for fifty other migrants. The Maltese Navy rescued 152 migrants on a wooden boat in southern Malta after rescuing 28 people on a canoe 71 miles southwest of the island, according to a statement. She also announced Sunday night rescued 69 other people in distress at sea.
However, some 49 migrants recovered in recent days by two ships of the German NGOs Sea-Watch and Sea-Eye were still waiting for a port to disembark. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday called on the international community to find a port urgently to accommodate these 49 people, including children. "Time is running out and for the next few hours there is a rough sea and it is likely that the conditions on both ships will deteriorate," UNHCR said in a statement.
Negotiations still in progress. Sea-Eye's Professor Albrecht Penck has 16 men on board, including the youngest at 17 and a 24-year-old West African woman rescued on Saturday off the coast of Libya. . As for the Dutch-flagged Sea-Watch 3, it has been sailing since 22 December with 32 migrants - including three young children, three unaccompanied adolescents and four women - from Nigeria, Libya and Côte d'Ivoire. While Italy, Malta, Spain and the Netherlands have refused to accept Sea-Watch 3 migrants, several German cities have offered to take them over.
On Saturday, a government spokesman explained that Germany would only accept these migrants in case of sharing with other European countries, as has happened since Italy officially closed its ports in June. Negotiations are underway, particularly with the Netherlands, and a solution could be forthcoming in the coming days.