Malta and Italy have no formal agreement for the latter to take all the migrants rescued in recent days, but Rome has “understood our limitations and we are cooperating in a more meaningful manner”, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.

Speaking to Times of Malta, Dr Muscat insisted there was no formal agreement.

“I think Malta and Italy have realised, and this has been the case for the past one-and-a-half years approximately, that there are different, better ways of cooperating,” he said.

Ever since Rome launched Mare Nostrum following the Lampedusa tragedies, in which some 600 migrants lost their lives in two shipwrecks off the Italian island in October 2013, Italy has been taking virtually all the people rescued in the Sicilian strait. 

Last year, while Italy took a staggering 170,000 people, Malta got away with 568. So far this year, while Italy has taken more than 24,000 migrants, Malta’s tally is 87 while four others were airlifted.

This has fuelled suspicion that there is some unpublished agreement between Valletta and Rome such that Malta is giving away something in return.