Spain has agreed to accept 26 Africans who were refused permission to land in Malta after they were stranded at sea.
But the Spanish government has said that rules on who should take migrants rescued at sea need to be qualified.
Malta refused to allow a Spanish tugboat land the would-be migrants yesterday, arguing they were not found in its water.
‘It wasn't clear whose responsibility they were,’ said a spokesman for Spain's Foreign Ministry. ‘But we do have a clear idea that you can't let people die at sea.’
Only days before, another 27 shipwrecked Africans spent three days clinging to tuna nets in the open Mediterranean while Malta and Libya argued over who should rescue them, until they were eventually picked up by the Italian Navy.
The Africans are believed to be from Ivory Coast and likely to request political asylum.
While Spanish ships regularly pick up migrants at sea, Madrid has been a taking a tougher line with Africans trying to sail into its territory and earlier this month said it would repatriate 1,000 who arrived in the Canary Islands.
In Brussels, European Commission migration spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing said ships and governments had a duty to rescue people they found in danger at sea but that rules governing such cases were very complex.
