Malta Allows 50 Migrants to Come Ashore
Malta has allowed 50 migrants who had been stranded in the Mediterranean for more than two weeks to come ashore, following an agreement between European Union countries to distribute them among eight other European nations.
The migrants had been aboard two German humanitarian vessels. According to a video released by the Sea-Watch organization, the migrants expressed great joy after hearing that they would finally be allowed to leave the ships and reach land.
The two vessels had been allowed to shelter in Maltese waters seven days earlier because of bad weather. However, reaching an agreement to disembark the migrants took longer because Malta insisted that the arrangement also include 251 other migrants who had been rescued and received by the country in recent days.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that the migrants would be distributed among Germany, France, Portugal, Ireland, Romania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy.
