VALLETTA: Eleven migrants who were stranded on a Spanish fishing boat for more than a week after being rescued off Libya were brought to Malta on Sunday, ending an international stand-off, but Valletta said they would later be taken to Spain.
The vessel was initially refused entry by Italy, Malta and Spain.
The fishing boat, Santa Madre de Loreto, rescued 12 migrants in international waters off the coast of Libya 10 days ago. Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, which has been assisting the boat and migrants aboard, said it would not have been safe if they were returned to Libya.
On Sunday, the migrants were transferred from the Nuestra Madre de Loreto to a Maltese patrol boat, and arrived in Valletta harbor at 1 p.m. (1200 GMT), Maltese government spokesman Kurt Farrugia said.
However, Farrugia told Reuters that Malta had agreed with Madrid that this was only a temporary solution dictated by “humanitarian reasons,” and they would be taken to Spain in due course.
“Malta had no obligation to take them because they were not picked up in Maltese waters and Malta was not the closest port,” Farrugia said.
A young man among the group was flown to Malta by helicopter on Friday after he fell unconscious due to exhaustion.
The remaining migrants, including two minors, are weak after their ordeal in cramped conditions at sea, said the charity group United4Med.
After offering to take more than 600 migrants rejected by Italy and Malta over the summer, Madrid said that rather than making the long journey to Spain, the boat should head to the nearest safe port.
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists go to the polls on Sunday in a key regional election in Andalusia, the main entry point for migrants making the dangerous sea crossing to Spain.
Immigration has been a major focus of the campaign, while a surging far right is predicted to win its first seats since the 1970s.
“From the beginning, the government has worked to ensure the boat, which is in international waters, goes to a safe and nearby port,” Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said in a statement on Sunday.
Madrid’s conduct was criticized by Proactiva Open Arms.
“The government now says #Santa Madre de Loreto should head to Malta. Late, wrong and unscrupulous,” the group’s founder Oscar Camps wrote on Twitter on Sunday morning.
“Playing with the security of people who have gone 10 days without news, amid a rough storm, and with one person rescued by helicopter and a high risk for the whole crew,” Camps said.
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Migrants brought to Malta from Spanish boat after long standoff
Migrants brought to Malta from Spanish boat after long standoff
- The vessel was initially refused entry by Italy, Malta and Spain
- The fishing boat, Santa Madre de Loreto, rescued 12 migrants in international waters off the coast of Libya 10 days ago
UK pro-Palestinian activists not guilty of burglary over raid at Israeli firm Elbit
LONDON: Six British pro-Palestinian activists were acquitted of aggravated burglary on Wednesday over a 2024 raid on Israeli defense firm Elbit’s factory, with a jury unable to reach verdicts on other charges including criminal damage.
Prosecutors said the six defendants were members of the now-banned group Palestine Action, which organized a meticulously planned assault on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, causing about 1 million pounds ($1.4 million) of damage.
Prosecutors had told a jury at London’s Woolwich Crown Court at the start of the trial in November that the six were part of a larger group that used a white former prison van to smash into the factory in the early hours of August 6, 2024.
Some of the group used fireworks and smoke grenades to keep security guards at bay, while others caused “extensive damage” inside the factory by smashing equipment with crowbars and hammers and spraying red paint, prosecutor Deanna Heer said.
The defendants said they were simply motivated to destroy weapons to stop what they described as Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza and disavowed violence against people.
Not guilty verdicts and hung jury
The six on trial – Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31 – all denied charges of aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage.
They were all acquitted of the burglary offense while Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin were found not guilty of violent disorder.
The jury could not reach verdicts on the same charge against Head, Corner and Kamio after more than 36-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
Corner had also denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent for hitting a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on that count.
The defendants hugged in the dock and waved to supporters in the public gallery, who cheered loudly after the judge had left the court.
Britain proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization last July, almost a year after the Elbit incident took place, making it a crime to be a member.
Judge Jeremy Johnson had told the jurors they must consider the case “on the evidence, not on the basis of what you or anyone else thinks about Palestine Action or the war in Gaza.”
Heer said on Wednesday that prosecutors wanted time to consider whether to seek a retrial on the counts on which the jury could not reach verdicts. ($1 = 0.7294 pounds)
Prosecutors said the six defendants were members of the now-banned group Palestine Action, which organized a meticulously planned assault on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, causing about 1 million pounds ($1.4 million) of damage.
Prosecutors had told a jury at London’s Woolwich Crown Court at the start of the trial in November that the six were part of a larger group that used a white former prison van to smash into the factory in the early hours of August 6, 2024.
Some of the group used fireworks and smoke grenades to keep security guards at bay, while others caused “extensive damage” inside the factory by smashing equipment with crowbars and hammers and spraying red paint, prosecutor Deanna Heer said.
The defendants said they were simply motivated to destroy weapons to stop what they described as Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza and disavowed violence against people.
Not guilty verdicts and hung jury
The six on trial – Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31 – all denied charges of aggravated burglary, violent disorder and criminal damage.
They were all acquitted of the burglary offense while Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin were found not guilty of violent disorder.
The jury could not reach verdicts on the same charge against Head, Corner and Kamio after more than 36-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
Corner had also denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent for hitting a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on that count.
The defendants hugged in the dock and waved to supporters in the public gallery, who cheered loudly after the judge had left the court.
Britain proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization last July, almost a year after the Elbit incident took place, making it a crime to be a member.
Judge Jeremy Johnson had told the jurors they must consider the case “on the evidence, not on the basis of what you or anyone else thinks about Palestine Action or the war in Gaza.”
Heer said on Wednesday that prosecutors wanted time to consider whether to seek a retrial on the counts on which the jury could not reach verdicts. ($1 = 0.7294 pounds)
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