AFM commander Brigadier Martin Xuereb was at yesterday’s press conference with the minister. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

The 102 migrants stuck aboard a tanker that was prevented from reaching Malta are now being taken to Italy, the Government said last night.

The development followed a breakthrough in talks late at night after “intense diplomatic contacts” between Malta, Italy and Greece.

The Greek-owned tanker, MT Salamis, was until yesterday drifting some 24 nautical miles off the southern coast in international waters under the watchful eye of an armed forces patrol boat.

It had been there for two days after picking up the migrants from a sinking craft off the Libyan coast last Sunday. Malta refused it entry, arguing that the captain should have obeyed Rome’s instructions to head to the nearest safe port, Tripoli, instead of resuming its voyage to Malta.

The tanker will now be making for Syracuse in Sicily after the Italian Government agreed to take the migrants in.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who was directly involved in the talks, described Malta’s consistent stand as “solid and legitimate”, and said Malta had sent a clear signal by refusing the boat entry.

He also thanked the Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, adding that relations and understanding between the two countries would continue to grow.

Army medics had boarded the ship three times in 48 hours and ascertained that none of the migrants were in need of medical evacuation. The army also supplied water and food to the vessel after onboard supplies started to run out.

In a press conference before the latest development, National Security Minister Manuel Mallia had reserved harsh words for the ship’s captain and the tanker owners, accusing them of disregarding international law by ignoring orders to take the rescued migrants to Libya.

“As a sovereign state we cannot give in to the barefaced breach of international law by this captain,” Dr Mallia said, reiterating the Government’s stand that the ship would not be allowed to enter territorial waters.

But the drama on the high seas yesterday also took on a legal and political twist with the Government filing a judicial protest against the ship’s Maltese agent, Trevor Sullivan.

In its court protest, the Government insisted the ship had to return to the position it was in when it rescued the migrants and warned it would hold the ship accountable for any damages incurred by Malta.

The standoff was raised during the European Commission’s midday briefing in Brussels when a spokesman for European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström read out a statement in which she urged Malta to take in the migrants. Ms Malmström warned Malta it would be breaching international law if it asked the ship to return the migrants to Libya and urged the Government to put humanitarian considerations first.

‘We did not want to create a precedent’

However, Dr Mallia said the Commissioner did not have the correct information at hand when she made the statement.

Dr Mallia said he spoke to Ms Malmström over the phone after the briefing and gave her a timeline of events documenting the communication both Italy and Malta had with the ship’s captain.

He said the Government did not want to create a precedent by allowing the migrants to disembark in Malta after being rescued in Libyan waters.

In her statement, Ms Malmström said it was first and foremost important to save the lives of the rescued persons.

We cannot give in to the barefaced breach of international law by this captain

“Any dispute about the responsible search and rescue authority, including the involvement of the Italian and Libyan authorities, as well as the right place of disembarkation does not help the persons in immediate need. These issues should be clarified at a later stage.”

She insisted it was the “humanitarian duty” of the Maltese authorities to allow the migrants to disembark.

But Dr Mallia held firm to the Government’s stand and accused ship captain Leopoldo Manna of disregarding international law and ignoring orders given to him by the Italian and Maltese rescue authorities.

Giving a detailed breakdown of how the events unfolded, Dr Mallia said it was amply clear that the captain was following his boss’s orders to head towards Malta for commercial reasons in breach of international rescue standards.

According to the Italian rescue centre, which coordinated the salvage operation, the Salamis was given orders to take the rescued migrants to Tripoli. The rescue took place some 45 nautical miles off the Libyan coast soon after the ship left the port city of Khoms on its way to Malta.

Dr Mallia shrugged off arguments made by human rights groups that Libya was not a safe country. He insisted that in a similar incident on Monday, a Turkish cargo carrier that had picked up 96 migrants found no problems in taking them to Tripoli.

In a press release issued during the day, Alternattiva Demokratika’s home affairs spokesman Carmel Cacopardo said humanitarian considerations should prevail and the responsibility for the migrants must be shared between Malta, Italy and the EU.

Before the agreement with Italy, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had also called for “a quick and practical solution to enable the safe and rapid disembarkation of the people rescued” but refrained from saying where they should disembark.

Amnesty International had called on Malta to take in the migrants saying that no passenger on board the Salamis should be removed to Libya.

“This would violate the international prohibition against removing anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of ill-treatment or other serious human rights abuses.”

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles also urged Malta to “comply with international human rights obligations” and fulfil its duty by allowing for the immediate and safe disembarkation of the migrants.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com