The German vessel Sea-Eye 4, carrying 87 migrants has been denied entry to Malta and is now on its way to Southern Italy, in the hopes that they will be able to dock there.

Sea-Eye is a German civil sea rescue organisation, well known for carrying out rescues in the Mediterranean Sea as migrants escape North Africa.

The German NGO said that it spent several days waiting outside Malta after they managed to rescue 87 migrants from Malta’s Search and Rescue (SAR) Zone in the Mediterranean.

On Saturday, Sea-Eye tweeted that they had just spent their seventh night on the ship.

“Malta rejects our request for a safe harbour and ignores its own responsibility and jurisdiction,” they said.

After being denied by the Maltese authorities, the vessel set off towards Sicily and on Monday morning it was marked as being not far off from the port of Ragusa.

The German Greens MP, Julian Pahlke, who was on board the vessel, said “What does Malta do? They say they are not responsible and the ship has to head for its home port of Regensburg in southern Germany. Not kidding.”

Malta has signed the International Maritime Search and Rescue Convention, which divides the world’s oceans into 13 SAR areas. However, multiple organisations have accused Malta of denying NGO vessels with migrants onboard from entry into their harbour and forcing them to go to southern Italy instead.

In April 2020, the Maltese authorities stated that there is no "guarantee the rescue of 'prohibited immigrants' on board any boats, ships or other vessels, nor to ensure the availability of a 'safe place' on Maltese territory to any persons rescued at sea.”

The migrant emergency hotline Alarm Phone reported having significantly fewer rescues being carried out by the Armed Forces of Malta, from May 2020. Instead, the NGO said, migrants were illegally being sent back to Libya.

"We are observing that the AFM doesn’t go out for rescues at all to boats in distress in the Maltese search and rescue zone, south of Lampedusa. Instead, they count on merchant vessels and the Libyan coastguard to push boat people back to Libya," said Alarm Phone’s Britta Rabe.

Alarm phone had also accused Malta of using air surveillance to prevent boats from entering the island’s SAR zone.