In the past days, two groups of migrants were relocated to Germany and France as a result of an agreement with the European Commission and a number of EU member states, the government said.
The immigrants relocated to Germany are all from the AFM rescue on board of the NGO vessel Ocean Viking. These migrants were rescued from the vessel on the 23rd of August after being stranded for 13 days. Malta intervened in the stalemate without prejudice to its legal position, and when an agreement was reached to the effect that all migrants onboard of the vessel will be relocated to different EU Member states.
The second group of immigrants relocated to France are also from the Ocean Viking resue and from the rescue on board of the NGO Sea-Eye vessel Alan Kurdi which occured on the 10th of September. A group of migrants had also remained stranded on this vessel and Malta had agreed to be a part of a European solution to solve the impasse by offering disembarkation.
All immigrants were assisted by the local authorities, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and officials from the respective embassies.