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Malta refuses migrants rescued by Italian ship

An Italian coastguard ship carrying about 300 migrants rescued off the Tunisian coast was refused entry into Malta yesterday and instead headed towards Sicily, the Times of Malta reports. Army sources said the migrants were rescued by the Italian coastguard in the early hours of Sunday off Lampedusa, close to Tunisia in the search and rescue area coordinated by Malta. A Nato official at the command centre in Naples, said the boat was first spotted by an Italian aircraft about 80 kilometres south of Lampedusa at about 6 p.m. on Saturday. The aircraft informed Nato command but, since it did not have any ships in the area, it informed the Maltese authorities because the boat was in Malta’s search and rescue region. Sources said the Armed Forces of Malta dispatched a patrol boat to the rescue area just after midnight on Saturday but the Italian coastguard got there first. The migrants, who were fleeing Libya, were transferred from the boats they were on onto the Commandante Borsini, which was not under Nato command. It sailed towards Malta but the Maltese authorities refused to allow the Italian vessel to disembark the migrants on the island arguing that, according to international law, they should have been taken to the nearest safe port of call, which would have been Tunisia or Lampedusa. More at http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110815/local/Malta-refuses-migrants-rescued-by-Italian-ship.380260