Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has announced that Norway has joined a list of countries who will take migrants who were on board the MV Lifeline for six days before it docked in Malta.
Muscat, in a tweet, thanked Norway - a non-EU country - for the decision taken.
The countries taking migrants has now grown to nine, with Norway added to Malta, Portugal, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Belgium.
In an official statement, the government said Norway offered to join the other 8 EU Member States which yesterday officially announced their participation in the ad hoc initiative led by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for shared responsibility over the humanitarian crisis on board MV Lifeline.
Currently, the immigrants who were on board the vessel are undergoing a preliminary assessment at the Marsa Initial Reception Centre, following which the distribution of genuine asylum seekers will start immediately in Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal and Norway.
MV Lifeline was granted permission to enter a Maltese port, despite Malta having no legal obligation or responsibility, after the captain of MV Lifeline went against international rules and ignored directions given by the Italian authorities coordinating the rescue.
The MV Lifeline will be detained pending the necessary investigations according to national and international rules, the government said.
All babies who were on board the MV Lifeline which made port in Malta yesterday were accompanied by their parents or guardians, a government spokesman told The Malta Independent.
This contradicted comments made by the Co-Founder of the NGO who runs the vessel, Alex Steier, who later admitted that he might have received wrong information from those on board the vessel at that time.
Steier had originally told the press that there was a two-and-a-half year old child travelling alone, with no parents or companions on board.
This newsroom contacted the government this morning for an update on this child’s situation, and what the next steps in this particular case would be. The spokesperson said however, that there were no unaccompanied babies on-board.
The migrants were at sea for six days, as no country accepted them until PM Muscat led a diplomatic effort which resulted in an agreement involving Luxembourg, Italy, France, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The government spokesperson also said that the Captain of the MV Lifeline was taken to the Police Headquarters last night to hand over some documentation, but was later released. The proper interview is taking place today, she said. In addition, the asylum seeker interviewing process is also underway.
***
A German humanitarian group has defended the captain and crew of its migrant rescue ship Lifeline, saying they "strictly abided by international law" at all times.
Malta is investigating whether Captain Claus-Peter Reisch broke the law and ignored instructions to take 234 migrants rescued off the Libyan coast to Libya — a charge echoed by France and Italy.
The Mission Lifeline group will hold a news conference Thursday, a day after the ship was allowed to dock in Malta.
On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to weigh into the debate, telling parliament that "there's an obligation to let the Libyan coast guard to do their work."
Aid groups and legal experts have questioned whether war-torn Libya is in a position to conduct proper search and rescue operations around its coastline.
Photo Domenic Aquilina