VALLETTA (Reuters) – A group of around 70 migrants, all men, landed in Malta on Tuesday after they were rescued in the Mediterranean.
The Home Affairs Ministry confirmed that a rescue was carried out by a patrol boat of the armed forces of Malta, but gave no further details.
Malta has not seen the same scale of migrant arrivals as other parts of the Mediterranean; more than 2,000 migrants landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa over the weekend.
A March report by the Council of Europe’s European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment criticised conditions at detention centres for migrants in Malta, accusing the government of breaking international law and flouting European values.
The report was issued after a delegation visited Malta in September, 2020. It said it found migrants who were “forgotten for months”, locked in filthy and degrading conditions without adequate healthcare.
Malta says it follows international law in the rescue and treatment of migrants. Several small groups of migrants were sent to other European countries over the past weeks through arrangements made by the European Commission.
(Reporting by Christopher Scicluna; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
