VALLETTA, Malta: Malta’s navy said on Wednesday that it had rescued a total of 271 migrants from the Mediterranean in three separate operations.
The navy rescued 63 migrants in distress after their dinghy started to take in water overnight, a statement said.
A patrol boat rescued another 61 migrants after they made a distress call, and then 147 more in a third rescue, the navy said, without providing further details.
The rescued migrants were taken to Malta for health checks.
Malta has appealed to the EU for help in dealing with the flow of migrants, which its much larger neighbor Italy has begun to turn away.
Italy’s hard-line stance has increased pressure on the island nation of 450,000 people, which was already a common destination for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa.
Malta navy rescues 271 migrants from Mediterranean
Malta navy rescues 271 migrants from Mediterranean
- Authorities took the rescued individuals to Malta for health checks
- The country appealed to the EU for help
Proposed EU mission to blocked pipeline awaiting Ukraine approval
- European Union member Hungary has in turn blocked a vital $106-billion EU loan to Ukraine
- “We have proposed a mission to inspect the pipeline to Ukraine,” said Itkonen
BRUSSELS: The EU said Thursday it had proposed a mission to inspect a blocked oil pipeline at the center of a row between Ukraine and Hungary — and was waiting for Kyiv to respond.
Hungary and Slovakia accuse Kyiv of deliberately delaying reopening the Druzhba pipeline, which pumps Russian oil to the two landlocked states and Ukraine says was damaged by Russian strikes in January.
European Union member Hungary has in turn blocked a vital 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) EU loan to Ukraine as well as a fresh round of sanctions on Russia.
“We have proposed a mission to inspect the pipeline to Ukraine,” Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, a spokeswoman for the European Commission told journalists in Brussels. “We are awaiting their response.”
The suggestion of an EU fact-finding mission came on the back of two weeks of “intense discussions and contact with Ukraine on this issue,” she added.
On Wednesday, Budapest said it had sent its own mission to assess the pipeline and hold talks with Ukrainian authorities — only for Kyiv to deny there were any discussions planned.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week it could take four to six weeks to make the pipeline operational again.
The dispute comes as Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has ramped up political attacks on Ukraine ahead of a closely fought parliamentary election in Hungary on April 12.
Orban, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the EU, has also urged the 27-nation bloc to suspend sanctions on Russian oil and gas to counter rising prices since the Middle East war erupted.
