After spending two days floating in oblivion, the group of 74 migrants rescued at sea on Saturday morning were yesterday taken to Tunisia, following an agreement reached between the Tunisian and Italian authorities.

The migrants had been rescued by a French-registered Tunisian fishing trawler, the FV Lotfi, on Saturday.

They remained stuck in the same spot for two days as Tunisia and Italy failed to agree on who should take them in.

Yesterday morning the Armed Forces of Malta, as the rescue coordinator, were informed by the Tunisian authorities that the migrants were being taken there aboard a Tunisian navy vessel.

The Lotfi rescued the migrants in Malta’s search and rescue area but in international waters, 53 nautical miles from Tunisia, 50 nautical miles from the Italian island Lampedusa and 120 nautical miles from Malta, according to the AFM.

The Maltese government’s responsibility was limited to coordinating the rescue.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.