If Malta allows migrants who have been stranded at sea for more than two weeks to land, Italy was prepared to receive 15 of them, Italy Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said today.
Il Corriere della Sera reported that Conte is acting as a mediator between Holland, Portugal, Germany and France for a solution to the impasse which has seen 49 migrants stranded on two NGO vessels a few miles off Malta.
The migrants were taken on board the two vessels outside Maltese territorial waters, with Malta insisting that they were not saved in Malta’s SAR zone and therefore should not become Malta’s responsibility.
The Maltese government has however allowed the ships to move closer to Maltese shores to shelter from bad weather. But PM Muscat insisted on Sunday that Malta was not ready to serve as a basis for all migrants saved all over the Mediterranean.
Conte was reported as saying that Italy was not only ready to accept women and children, as initially suggested by Economy Minister Luigi Di Maio. “We will also accept men as we are not ready to split families,” Conte told Italian media. But, he said, this will only happen if Malta accepts to take in migrants and everybody respects the rules.
Conte’s suggestion does not go against Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s line that Italy’s ports should remain closed.
Italian media report that Malta is set to give in to pressure from the EU to allow the vessel to dock in Malta, but the Maltese government is still pushing for a solution to be found also for the 250 migrants who were saved by Malta between Christmas and the New Year.
Germany has said that it is also ready to participate in the burden sharing exercise but in a solution that is endorsed by the EU.
The development comes as Sea-Watch reported via Twitter that the condition of the migrants on board continues to deteriorate.