A vessel belonging to a Spanish NGO involved in the rescue of irregular migrants was detained in Sicily on Sunday night when its crew was accused of letting 218 migrants disembark there instead of taking them to Malta.
The issue, the first since the Italian elections earlier this month, unfolded over five days and reportedly escalated to diplomatic rows between Malta, Libya, Italy and Spain over where the rescued migrants, who departed from Libya, should be taken.
The Maltese government insisted on Sunday when contacted by the Times of Malta “there was no diplomatic row in this case”.
Italian media and international news agencies reported that the vessel, operated by the NGO Proactiva Open Arms, had picked up the migrants about 75 miles off the Libyan coast on Thursday.
The Spanish NGO was quoted by the news reports as saying that while its ship was in international waters, the Libyan coastguard had demanded the migrants be transferred to a Libyan military vessel to be taken back to the North African country.
However, both the migrants and the NGO refused, claiming this order was not in accordance with international protocols, since the rescue was taking place in international waters.
The media reports said the Rome coordination centre eventually instructed Open Arms to land the migrants at the safest close port, which, at that point, was Malta. A mother and her three-month-old baby were transferred to a Maltese patrol boat for medical reasons, but the NGO vessel decided to go to Pozzallo.
Mother and her baby transferred to a Maltese boat for medical care
The Catania prosecutors were asked to look into the matter, and on Sunday night, the Open Arms vessel, berthed in Pozzallo, was impounded and the crew interrogated by the police, they added.
It is not yet known whether any formal charges will be issued, though, according to the media reports, the crew members are being accused of ignoring orders to take the migrants to Malta and that, through their actions, they facilitated irregular migration.
A spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister said the operation had unfolded within Libya’s search and rescue region and was not coordinated by the Maltese SAR authorities.
Migrants wait to disembark in Pozzallo on Saturday.“Malta had no obligation to accept the migrants,” the spokesman for the OPM insisted.
In recent months, reports have emerged indicating that a ‘secret deal’ that was struck between Malta and Italy in 2013 on irregular migration was on the rocks.
Both countries deny any such secret arrangement existed.
The political forces that won the greatest number of votes in the recent Italian election, but have yet to form a government, vowed during the electoral campaign that Italy would stop accepting all irregular migrants saved on the high seas in the Libya-Malta-Sicily strait.
Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi was more specific and said that Malta would have to start taking its share of migrants.
Under Italian ex-prime minister Matteo Renzi, irregular migrants rescued from rogue boats in the Mediterranean stopped coming to Malta and were instead taken to Italy.
Neither Malta nor Italy would explain why was this happening and they continuously denied it was in exchange for oil exploration and drilling rights Malta had ceded to Italy.
Spring and calmer seas will herald a new season for irregular migration, and according to diplomatic sources, a revival of migration disputes between Malta and Italy.