VALLETTA: Maltese authorities said Thursday the migrants on board the rescue ship Lifeline, which docked in Malta after nearly a week stranded at sea, were mainly from Sudan.
“The nationalities so far are mostly Sudanese, there are Eritreans, also Somalis so it’s a mixed group and also some from West African countries,” Roberta Buhagiar, a representative from Malta’s interior ministry told journalists.
Lifeline, a vessel for the German charity Mission Lifeline, had been waiting for permission to enter a port for six days after rescuing 234 migrants off the coast of Libya last Thursday.
Malta finally agreed on Wednesday to let the ship dock after a deal among a group of EU states was reached to take in the migrants.
After the migrants had disembarked, “a few were taken to hospital for immediate medical attention,” Buhagiar said, while the rest were brought to a reception center near the country’s capital Valletta.
She said they would stay there pending medical clearance to begin interviews on the asylum procedure.
On Wednesday, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the migrants on board would be processed and “genuine asylum seekers will be afforded protection,” while “procedures will be started immediately to return those that do not qualify... in accordance with law.”
Buhagiar added that “in the coming days, we will expect member state delegations to be visiting Malta in order to agree how we are going to manage the situation and actually take some of them.”
The co-founder of Mission Lifeline Axel Steier told AFP Thursday that he believed “a very, very high percentage” of those on board qualified for asylum in the European Union.
On Wednesday Muscat said the Lifeline ship would be impounded in order to carry out a full investigation into its legal status and actions on the night of the rescue.
Mission Lifeline has come under fire from EU leaders, who accuse it of contravening international law by rescuing the migrants when the Libyan coast guard was already intervening.
“The captain was questioned (late Wednesday) as part of the investigation and then returned to the ship,” Steier told AFP, adding that he had returned to police headquarters again Thursday.
“We followed all the instructions of the authorities except the one saying to bring the people back to Libya,” he said.
Lifeline argued that the migrants would not be safe in Libya, where they have faced abuse in holding centers, and that returning them there would breach international refugee law.
Malta says migrants on board Lifeline rescue ship mainly Sudanese
Malta says migrants on board Lifeline rescue ship mainly Sudanese
- Malta says the migrants on board the rescue ship Lifeline were mainly from Sudan.
- The are also Eritreans, Somalis and some from West African countries
Russia investigates care home deaths in new Siberian health scandal
- The state Investigative Committee said professional lapses by staff had contributed to a mass outbreak of a viral infection that led to 46 people being hospitalized
- At least three people died as a result of the illness and six other deaths were under investigation
MOSCOW: A criminal investigation into patient deaths at a neuropsychiatric care home in Siberia has found that staff failed in their duties, Russian authorities said on Thursday, in the second health scandal to hit the region this month.
The state Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said professional lapses by staff had contributed to a mass outbreak of a viral infection that led to 46 people being hospitalized. At least three people died as a result of the illness and six other deaths were under investigation.
The care home is just outside the city of Novokuznetsk, where the deaths of nine newborn babies in the space of nine days shortly after the New Year sparked outrage across Russia and spurred a criminal investigation into negligence.
In the latest case, the Investigative Committee said staff were being questioned, medical records had been seized and forensic tests were under way to determine the cause of the infection’s spread.
The investigation is into “sanitary violations resulting in the deaths of patients.”
The regional health ministry said earlier this month it had detected 46 cases of influenza type A among a sample of 128 residents of the care home, while two more people tested positive for pneumonia.
Those who died included a 21-year-old woman with cerebral palsy and a 19-year-old man, according to regional authorities.
Ilya Seredyuk, governor of the Kuzbass region of Siberia, called the news was devastating, and said a commission formed by the regional government had been working on site since January 24.
“Materials requiring review have been sent to law enforcement agencies,” he said.
Kuzbass is a heavily industrial region of about 2.6 million people that accounts for much of Russia’s coal production.
Average life expectancy there in 2023 was about 70.2 years, well below the national average of 73.1 and compared with an average of 81.5 in the European Union.
Official data released this month shows deaths from respiratory diseases among working-age people in Kuzbass rose between 2022 and 2024, while overall mortality rates were higher and fertility rates lower than federal averages.
