The Lifeline had been refused entry by the governments of Italy and Malta, and its predominately Sub-Saharan passengers, who were rescued from flimsy boats trying to make their way across the Mediterranean Sea, were stuck on board amid worsening weather conditions that prompted the NGO to request permission to enter Maltese waters to take shelter. French President Emmanuel Macron said the Lifeline had broken "all the rules and played into the hands of smugglers.”

On Wednesday, on the eve of the European summit, the Lifeline was finally granted permission to dock in Malta after Salvini and Maltese President Joseph Muscat struck a deal with Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Luxembourg, France and Portugal to each take a quota of the Lifeline’s migrants in a shared responsibility approach that Italy has been fighting for against European resistance for years. A German NGO rescue vessel that has spent six days stuck at sea after no nearby European country would give it permission to dock has been granted permission to disembark in Malta after a group of European Union member states agreed to take in the roughly 230 passengers, the Maltese prime minister said Wednesday. The migrants, who were rescued off Libya’s coast, would be vetted to determine if they are eligible for political asylum or if they are economic migrants to be sent back to their countries of origin. Lifeline officials said that Libya was not a safe port, and that it was their duty to bring those trying to cross straight into Europe instead.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says that migrant rescue ship MV Lifeline, stranded in international waters with over 200 rescued people on board for five days, has been granted permission to dock on the island and will do so later today. Muscat says that those on board will be split among Malta and seven other European Union nations.