"France maintains its solidarity: 150 [people] will be welcomed in the coming days on our territory," said Interior Minister Christophe Castaner on Twitter on Friday (August 23rd).
356 migrants aboard the Ocean Viking humanitarian ship will be welcomed by France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania, after the formalization of a European agreement to distribute these people who will disembark in Malta.
#OceanViking: the 356 people on board, rescued in the Mediterranean Sea last week, will be able to disembark at Valletta.
France maintains its solidarity: 150 will be welcomed in the coming days on our territory.
"None of them will stay in Malta," said Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who had previously refused to allow the Ocean Viking to dock in Valletta, capital of the island.
Have a predictable mechanism
Earlier, Friday, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), which is chartering the vessel alongside SOS-Méditerranée, confirmed the information. "After fourteen days of unnecessary suffering, all 356 people aboard the Ocean Viking will finally land in Malta," said the NGO, saying at the same time that Europeans should now have a predictable mechanism and no longer rely on negotiations on a case-by-case basis.
🔴BREAKING: After 14 days stranded at sea with 356 vulnerable men, women and children on board, #MSF is relieved that #OceanViking has been offered the opportunity to disembark at a safe place in #Malta. https://t.co/1PMORTDwRA
MSF France (@MSF_france) August 23, 2019The agreement comes less than three days after the end of another similar crisis off Lampedusa. The Spanish ship Open Arms, stuck off the Italian island for 19 days with more than 100 migrants on board, was finally allowed to dock Tuesday night.
However, it took the intervention of the prosecutor of Agrigento, Sicily, to force a landing that opposed the Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, despite a similar European agreement.
More "solidarity"
The Ocean Viking waited for him for two weeks the authorization to dock in a "safe harbor". The crew had pointed out in recent days that food was running out and water was rationed on board.
On Wednesday, the European Commission had called on the Member States to show more "solidarity".
With AFP