Nigerians And Several Others, Stranded At Sea As Italy And Malta Refuse Rescue Ship Docking In Their Ports.

For the past two days, a  ship carrying 629 migrants, rescued from the Mediterranean have been waiting for the tension between Italy and Malta to subside, so they can be allowed into any of the countries.


According to AP, Italy's new anti-immigrant government headed by interior Minister Matteo Salvini said the country has had enough in welcoming migrants, he was quoted saying ''Saving lives is a duty, but transforming Italy into an enormous refugee camp isn't''. Which was delivered through his verified twitter handle.

The Maltese Premier,  Joseph Muscat also announced that his country is closing its port and the Aquarius ship of the humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee conveying  migrants would not be allowed access to Malta, he went further to accuse Italy of coordinating the rescue and violating  international norms governing sea rescues.

The stand of Italy is creating a dangerous situation for everyone involved in the rescue and acceptance of migrants, he added.

A total of 123 children under 18, and seven pregnant women are among those left on the Aquarius, which remains standby in the Mediterranean sea.
The migrants are said to have been rescued in a series of operations carried out by the Italian maritime ships on Saturday the 9th of June 2018.

They were offloaded unto the Aquarius to be taken to land but was ordered by Italian authorities to keep a distance of 35 miles from Italy, while Malta reciprocated, ordering the rescue ship to stay 27 miles off Malta.

A video of the situation aboard the ship was revealed by a tweet sent out by staffs of Doctors Without Borders who said they were unaware of the diplomatic drama being waged on land over the fate of the migrants and everyone aboard the ship.

Malta has vehemently stood their ground not to allow anymore migrants into the country, after welcoming not less than 2,775 since 2008, considering their size and limited capacities.

Salvini in a Facebook post accused Malta of unwillingness to assist Europe in the refugee crisis currently looming, noting that other European countries were involved in the rescue operations in the Mediterranean , including a German aid group currently off the coast in Libya.

As at the time of writing this article, the Aquarius with it's 629 migrants are still in  the Mediterranean waiting patiently for a resolution between the two European countries.