The Armed Forces of Malta are coordinating the rescue of 74 migrants saved by a French registered Tunisian trawler.
Sources said that in line with its position that migrants should be directed to the closest port, Malta directed the trawler to Lampedusa.
However, Lampedusa refused to take the migrants saying it was not a safe port.
The matter is currently unresolved but the Maltese authorities believe that a positive resolution is possible. The Tunisian authorities are also involved in the talks.
The migrants on board the trawler are not in distress.
The AFM said in a statement that they were yesterday evening alerted by Italian authorities to a boat with persons in distress, located 83 nautical miles south of Lampedusa, and 139 NM south-west of Malta in the Libyan search-and-rescue region of responsibility.
Malta was also subsequently informed by a third-country national that the boat was adrift due to fuel shortage. The AFM was later informed by the Italian authorities that there were some 70 people on board the drifting vessel, including children. The boat was heading towards Lampedusa.
The AFM sent an aircraft to conduct a search for this vessel and an earlier one that had also been reported to Malta by the Italian authorities.
At around 00.12 a.m., the AFM’s aircraft located a group of people on a rubber-dinghy 50NM south-south-west off Lampedusa, and 120NM south-west of Malta. They were being assisted by two fishing vessels. One of them, the FV “Lofti”, picked 74 people.
At around 8.10 a.m. today, the Italian authorities informed Malta that Lampedusa ‘was not a safe port’ to land these rescued persons.
An AFM aircraft and the Tunisia later this morning confirmed that the fishing-vessel was under the escort of a naval vessel towards Lampedusa.
Requests from the Tunisia to the Italian authorities to allow the disembarkation of the rescued people continued to be refused until earlier this evening.
In addition, at 2.20 p.m. the Italian authorities alerted Malta to a pair of boats with some 70 people on board, one of which was reportedly sunk.
The alarm had been raised by the Italian fishing-vessel Ghibli Primo at 84NM south-west of Malta and 63NM south-east of Lampedusa, to which position the Italian Navy dispatched a warship augmented with the use of its own onboard SAR-helicopter to assist.
The AFM immediately dispatched a patrol boat to the site to assist as required. It already had an aircraft airborne conducting a search.
By late afternoon, the Ghibli Primo was observed following an Italian Guardia Costiera launch headed to Lampedusa. The launch had previously taken on board some of the rescued people.