Italy remains the only country still to keep its word to take in 50 migrants who arrived in Malta on board the Lifeline in late June as this morning another group left for Ireland.
In a statement this evening, government said that two groups of migrants who came to Malta aboard the MV Lifeline were successfully relocated to Belgium and Ireland over the past week.
"The successful conclusion of these two latest relocations means that seven EU member states, as well as Norway, have respected the commitments which they made through the ad-hoc solidarity agreement spearheaded by Malta. "One member state is still to enact its pledge."
The ad-hoc solidarity agreement was reached following joint political willingness among several member states to bring about a swift and effective resolution to the humanitarian crisis which developed on board of the MV Lifeline, government said. The asylum seekers had disembarked in Malta on 27 of June.
"All migrants were assessed by the delegations from the countries of destination and by local authorities which were also responsible for their needs during their stay in Malta. The Government of Malta thanks all the countries which upheld their pledges to be part of the solidarity agreement."
In a tweet earlier in the day, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said only one country has not yet taken in the migrants it promised. No nations were mentioned, but with another seven nations accepting their share, only Italy remains to receive Lifeline migrants.
Malta will also be settling some of the migrants as part of a nine-nation deal brokered by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had promised Muscat that Italy would accept some migrants rescued in the MV Lifeline stand-off. In all, 234 migrants were rescued.
The MV Lifeline was given permission to dock only after the Maltese government reached a one-off deal with eight other European countries to jointly relocate the migrants.
Upon entering Malta, the ship was impounded and its captain was taken to court.
France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Norway and Belgium (last Sunday) had already taken in some of the migrants brought aboard the ship.