Italy never fulfilled its pledge to take 50 migrants from Malta, the Times of Malta is informed, undermining Rome’s political posturing as it continues to lash out at EU States for failing to do their part in relieving arrivals.
Migration sources have hit back at Italy’s right-wing Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, who singled out Malta, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Ireland for not taking the migrants they promised to absorb from a boat of 450 that landed in Pozzallo last month.
“Italy should stop naming and shaming countries when it is the one which is often holding up the process,” said a source, speaking on condition on anonymity.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had promised Joseph Muscat that Italy would accept 50 of the migrants rescued in the MV Lifeline stand-off last June.
The Maltese authorities were surprised to learn shortly afterwards that Italy dispatched officials to interview 27 of the migrants who had arrived in Malta with the intention of taking 25 – and not 50 – to Rome, according to the sources. Yet, more than two months later, the migrants remain in Malta’s detention centres after Italy never followed up on the process.
When a group of 450…
