Romania Offers To Receive Five Migrants From Ships Stuck In The Mediterranean

Romania’s Foreign Affairs Ministry announced on Tuesday that it offered to take over five migrants from the 248 recently received by Malta and from other 49 stuck on two ships which are currently denied docking in the country and in neighboring Italy.

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The announcement comes after reports in the Italian press stated earlier in the day that Romania was among the countries which offered to host migrants from the two ships.

“Romania has expressed its availability, in principle, together with other member states, to take over five migrants (…) The decision is a punctual gesture of solidarity which Romania decided to offer, inclusively to give, from the perspective of its EU Council presidency, a positive signal to encourage the other member states to follow a similar conduct,” reads a statement issued by the ministry.

The ministry also added that during its EU Council presidency, Romania will plead for the strengthening of the union’s cooperation with the origin-states of migration in Northern Africa, for the purpose of tackling the issue of illegal migration at its core.

Forty-nine immigrants which were rescued at sea last week are currently stuck on board two humanitarian ships, after the governments of Italy and Malta have refused the ships access into their ports.

In this context, several countries – including Germany, France, Portugal, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Romania – have offered to receive the immigrants if the Maltese Government will accept the initial docking of the two ships, according to European officials cited by the Italian ANSA news agency.

Diplomatic sources told the agency that negotiations are currently deadlocked, as the La Valletta Government is also requesting the redistribution of other 249 immigrants rescued last week by the Maltese Coast Guard.

The captain of the German humanitarian ship Sea Watch, one of the two carrying the migrants, announced that several of its passengers started a hunger strike in protest of the situation and that “the psychological and general health state of the migrants is worsening by the minute”.

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