Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has called for formal rules of engagement for vessels rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean.

The call was made in Salzburg, where he is attending an EU leaders' summit, on the same day as NGO rescue ship Aquarius said on Thursday it had rescued 11 migrants in international waters off Libya.

This is the third rescue mission by Aquarius. The previous two led to lengthy standoffs until the ship found a harbour where it could disembark the migrants it had on board. In June, it was forced to go to Valencia while in August it came to Malta only after an agreement was reached by several countries to take the migrants.

Dr Muscat said there was growing realisation in the EU that migration was an EU-wide problem. Ways were being discussed as to how all member states could contribute to this issue.  

Malta would continue to abide by its international obligations, but it expected support from other countries. Malta was also insisting that it should not be crises which pushed the EU to act, Dr Muscat said.    

While migrant arrivals had dropped sharply this year there still remained issues as to where rescued migrants were to be taken.

In an obvious reference to Aquarius, Dr Muscat said the migrants were picked up in international waters controlled by Libya. Had they been picked up by the Libyan coastguard, they would have been taken to Libya. All those who took part in such rescue missions needed to have clear rules of engagement.

He said Malta was so far the only country which had convinced other countries to take migrants disembarked at its harbours. None of the latest migrants to arrive in Malta had stayed on the island.  

However, Malta totally rejected the idea of serving as some sort of regional centre where migrants were processed.  

Dr Muscat said he did not expect any breakthroughs at this summit, but agreements were made step by step, he said. 

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