The 356 migrants aboard the French NGO ship Ocean Viking will be shared among six European Union countries, Malta said on Friday.
France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania will take them in, said Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Twitter.
Malta will take them onto navy ships in international waters and bring them to Malta, after which they will be redistributed, he said. “Not one will remain in Malta”, he said.
The accord was reached after talks with the European Commission and member States including France and Germany, Muscat said.
The migrants aboard Ocean Viking, at sea for two weeks, have only five days of food supplies left, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF). “Still no safe port has been assigned”, MSF said. “We are concerned about the rapid worsening of the state of mental health of the persons on board”.
The ship has been barred from docking in Italian ports under Interior Minister and anti-migrant League leader Matteo Salvini’s policy of closing Italian ports to migrant rescue NGO run ships.
Salvini also noted on social media that the “landing of 350 other immigrants” had been avoided and that it would never happen if Democratic party leader Matteo Renzi comes to power again.
Salvini tweeted on Sunday that migrants from two boats were taken back to Libya. “Two inflatable boats with about 100 immigrants on board in the Mediterranean, the Libyan Coast Guard is intervening to rescue them and bring them back to land. If you give in to blackmail by smugglers and NGOs and the ports are reopened, it’s over! Stop landings, stop deaths.”
🔴Due gommoni con circa 100 immigrati a bordo nel Mediterraneo, la Guardia Costiera Libica sta intervenendo per soccorrerli e riportarli a terra.
Se si cede al ricatto di scafisti e Ong e si riaprono i porti, è finita!
Stop sbarchi, stop morti. pic.twitter.com/altOvj4zh4— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) August 24, 2019
Meanwhile in Sicily so-called “ghost landings” of illegal migrants are continuing unabated.