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IMMIGRATION

Malta takes migrants rescued by Spanish fishermen: aid group

Eleven migrants stranded in the Mediterranean for 10 days have been taken in by Malta after an appeal by the captain for help, a Spanish aid group said Sunday.

Published: 2 December 2018 17:30 CET
Malta takes migrants rescued by Spanish fishermen: aid group
A file photo of the harbour of Marsa in Malta. Photo: AFP

Proactiva Open Arms, which helped the “Nuestra Madre Loreto” Spanish fishing vessel rescue the migrants, said Valletta had agreed to take them in amid worsening sea conditions.

“#NuestraMadreLoreto has completed the transfer to Maltese coastguard and the 11 rescued people will disembark shortly in safe harbour #Malta,” it said on Twitter.

Twelve migrants from Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Senegal and Egypt were rescued off the coast of Libya on November 22nd. One was later evacuated by helicopter after falling seriously ill from dehydration.

The migrants had originally set out from Libya and were found drifting in a rubber dinghy in Maltese waters. Spain had tried to get Tripoli to take them back, and was in talks with Italy and Malta too.

But Pascual Dura, captain of the aid vessel sheltering them, told AFP on Tuesday that both Rome and Valletta had refused to let them dock.

“I cannot sail north and south, east and west, fleeing bad weather, without having an answer. I cannot believe it's not possible to find these people shelter,” he said in a radio message on Saturday, according to Proactiva Open Arms.

The UN's human rights body repeated in September its view that Libya was “not meeting the criteria for being designated as a place of safety for the purpose of disembarkation following rescue at sea”.

The UNHCR pointed to the volatile security situation in the crisis-hit North African country as well as the particular risks for asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants who are often held in substandard detention conditions.

Abuse of migrants is widespread following the chaos which has reigned since the 2011 ousting of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Many of those intercepted or rescued at sea find themselves held in prison-like centres, or are sold by traffickers.

Shortly after Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez came to power in June, Spain welcomed the Aquarius charity-run rescue ship and its 630 migrants after Italy and Malta refused to harbour the vessel.

Spain also welcomed the Open Arms ship three times, but in September Madrid declined to receive the Aquarius again. Instead it negotiated the distribution of the migrants aboard the ship among several other European Union nations.

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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