Italy has said it will allow a Turkish cargo ship carrying 140 rescued migrants to dock in one of its ports ‘for humanitarian reasons’, ending a four-day standoff with Malta.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the deal was reached after the intervention of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who spoke with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Maltese counterpart Lawrence Gonzi.
The ship, the Pinar, spent four days in choppy international waters southwest of the small Italian island of Lampedusa while Italy and Malta refused to receive the salvaged migrants, who were plucked from two struggling boats early on Thursday.
Rome had insisted that the rescue operation took place in Maltese waters and refused to accept the migrants, but Malta insisted it happened closer to Italy.
Initial estimates by the ship's crew had put the number of illegal migrants at 154, but an Italian medical team today counted only 140. None of them was in a serious medical condition, they said.
Nearly 37,000 immigrants landed on Italian coasts last year, 75% more than in 2007, according to the interior ministry. A further 2,775 arrived in Malta in 2008.
