Malta had no obligation to take in migrants rescued in Libyan waters but a two-day standoff may have changed the game, according to a maritime expert.

Lawyer Stefano Filletti, a lecturer at the International Maritime Law Institute, said the Government’s refusal to allow entry to the Salamis, a Liberian-registered tanker, had been legitimate under international maritime law. He was speaking before the news broke that the migrants were going to be taken to Italy.

The ship was instructed to rescue 102 migrants in the early hours of Monday when it was 42 nautical miles off Libya.

The Italian rescue centre in Rome that coordinated the operation then instructed the Salamis to have the migrants disembark in Tripoli but the order was ignored and the captain sailed on to Malta, the ship’s original destination.

Whether the captain was within his rights to continue heading towards Malta was a moot point, Dr Filletti said, adding he was wrong to ignore the order by a legitimate authority to head towards Libya.

Reacting to European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström’s statement yesterday that Malta was obliged by international law to accept the migrants, Dr Filletti said she was probably referring to migration law.

“Malmström conveniently forgot the previous day’s events... but the issue has now spilled over into the humanitarian aspect and it is a different ball game,” he said, adding the matter had taken on more of a human rights nature now.

Human rights lawyer Neil Falzon agreed that the situation of a ship stranded 24 nautical miles off Malta was not the same as when it all started two days ago.

However, he insisted that irrespective of which country was responsible for the migrants, Libya was not a safe port.

“It was never a legal option to send the migrants back to Libya and if the Government insists on this line it has to admit it is ready to breach international law,” Dr Falzon said, also speaking before the latest development became known.

Based on the practical and logical reasoning always used by the Government when rescuing migrants, Dr Falzon argued, the Salamis’s closest port became Malta. Rather than “hassling” the shipmaster, the Government should be hassling Italy and the EU to provide assistance once the migrants disembark here, he added.

“Malta is adopting a bullying attitude with vulnerable people and a shipmaster, who did his duty and saved people in distress. The Government should be bullying the EU for help,” Dr Falzon said, insisting the ship should have been allowed to berth.