The Sea-Watch 3, a Dutch-flagged vessel which pulled the migrants to safety nearly two weeks ago, was on Wednesday given permission by Malta to shelter off its coast from the fierce winds -- but not to land. "The Netherlands has indicated a readiness to possibly take in a proportional number of migrants who are on board Sea-Watch 3, on condition that other European countries do the same," said Lennart Wegewijs, the security and justice ministry spokesman, on Wednesday. And late Wednesday, Malta's navy announced that authorities would allow two German NGO ships — the Sea-Watch 3 and Sea-Eye — carrying migrants to "take shelter" in Maltese waters due to the deteriorating conditions on board. The Dutch had at first joined Italy, Malta and Spain in refusing to accept the refugees and migrants who were rescued on December 22 by Sea-Watch 3, which is operated by a German charity and have been stranded off Malta. The Sea-Watch 3, a vessel run by a German humanitarian group, plucked 32 people from an unsafe boat off the coast of Libya on Dec. 22, including three small children who are suffering from seasickness and four teenagers, who are traveling alone. It is the latest of a string of incidents involving people rescued at sea but left stranded in the Mediterranean that has thrown a harsh spotlight on the ongoing deadlock within the European Union over sharing responsibility for migrants. The news comes just days after a charity rescue vessel carrying 311 mainly African migrants plucked off the coast of Libya docked in Spain, ending a traumatic journey which saw them spend Christmas at sea. Until June last year, Italy took in almost all of the migrants rescued by humanitarian groups, but since then the new populist government’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has closed the ports to rescue ships. This week almost two dozen humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International and the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, called on the European Union to offer a safe port to both vessels.
The mayor of Naples offers to berth a NGO-operated ship with 32 migrants who were rescued on 22 December in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Libya.