Italy ‘Agrees to take African Migrants Rejected by Malta’

{{Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat thanked his Italian counterpart Enrico Letta, saying the decision would “reinforce” ties between the countries.}}

Malta had resisted EU pressure to take in the migrants, insisting the tanker should take them to Libya.

It argued that to accept them would set a “dangerous precedent”.

The tiny island state receives thousands of illegal migrants heading to Europe each year.

The oil tanker M/V Salamis, which picked up the migrants en route from Libya to Malta, was heading for the Sicilian port of Syracuse as of Wednesday morning, according to the Marine Traffic website.

According to the Times of Malta, a new group of 86 migrants was brought to Malta on board a patrol boat on Wednesday morning, after being rescued off the coast.

On Sunday, 111 mainly African migrants arrived in a rubber dinghy at Delimara, on Malta’s south-east coast.

BBC