Italy: Gov't allows entry to previously banned and stranded illegals
April 20, 2009
Rome -- Italy agreed Sunday night to accept 140 migrants stranded aboard a Turkish cargo ship that rescued them in the Mediterranean, ending a four-day standoff with Malta about who would take them in.
The Italian government 'has decided to let humanitarian reasons prevail,' Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.
'Malta should have taken them in,' Frattini told state TV.
The Associated Press
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi insisted in Parliament this evening that the government had acted in an ethically, morally and legally correct manner as events unfolded in the case of the MV Pinar E, which rescued 140 migrants off Lampedusa but was refused entry by both Italy and Malta for three days.
The issue was resolved this morning when the migrants were allowed to land in Sicily. Dr Gonzi said the spat had not harmed relations between Malta and Italy.
Dr Gonzi gave an account of how the events unfolded, saying that at 5.10 a.m. on Thursday morning, the Malta Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) was informed by Rome about the presence of a small migrants' boat 45 miles off Lempedusa. The RCC directed the freighter Pinar E to that position. The ship found 70 migrants on board the boat and picked them up because they were in distress. Later in the day the Pinar picked up some 80 more migrants from a second boat.
The Times of Malta
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