The captain of the MV Lifeline, which was allowed to dock in Malta on Wednesday, has been interviewed again at the police headquarters in Floriana and is expected to be released on police bail.
Meanwhile, a Spanish migrant rescue NGO has said that Malta and Italy have refused entry to one of its ships.
The MV Lifeline was allowed to enter Malta on Wednesday after 8 EU member states, later joined by Norway, agreed to 'share' the 230 migrants on board. The vessel had been stranded off the coast of Malta for a number of days.
Both Italy and Malta have accused the captain, Claus-Peter Reisch, of failing to obey instructions to take the rescued migrants to Libya. The German NGO says it disobeyed that order because Libya is not a safe place.
The Maltese government has also said that there are irregularities with the vessel's registration. While the NGO claimed that the vessel is registered under the Dutch flag, the authorities there said the vessel was registered as a pleasure yacht.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said an investigation would be carried out and the vessel would be impounded in Malta.
According to reports, the captain could be arraigned in Malta over the ship's irregular registration.
In another development, the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms has said that its ship Open Arms has been refused entry by both Malta and Italy. The NGO said it has saved more than 5,000 people in the space of a year, in operations coordinated by the Italian coast guard.
In March, Proactiva Open Arms had a boat impounded on the Italian island of Sicily after being accused of complicity in people-smuggling for refusing to hand over rescued migrants to the Libyan coast guard. But an Italian judge later backed the charity, saying that the fundamental rights of migrants could not be guaranteed in Libya.
from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2N8hNTl
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