EU urges Maltese Authorities to allow in African Immigrants

The European Union (EU) has asked Malta to allow into the country some 102 African immigrants on board a tanker from Libya, after the Maltese authorities decided to turn them back to the Libyan coast.

“Allowing immigrants to disembark in Malta is a humanitarian duty and the Maltese authorities’ decision to send the ship back to Libya is contrary to international conventions,’ EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström said in a statement,” read on Maltese television which was monitored by PANA in Tripoli.

Malta, which allowed in 120 immigrants on Sunday, refused to do the same for another group of immigrants on board the tanker a day later.

According to Malmström, the master of the ship carrying the immigrants, including four pregnant women and a 5-month-old baby, has dispatched an urgent medical request as one injured woman needs immediate hospitalisation.

‘This is why the Commission asks insistently that Malta allows these people to disembark as soon as possible,’ she explains.