Six adults and two children who were part of a group of 120 migrants rescued on Wednesday night, were landed in Malta on Thursday.
They are the first migrants to be brought to Malta since the government informed the EU on April 9 that no migrants would be allowed in since harbours had been closed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision to allow the eight in is understood to have been taken for humanitarian reasons. Some of the adults are the parents of the migrant children and one woman is pregnant. Another small group rescued from the same boat is expected to be brought in for the same reason in the coming hours.
[attach id=872309 type="video"]Video - Matthew Mirabelli.[/attach]
The remaining migrants are being transferred to a Captain Morgan tourist launch chartered by the government to hold them offshore. It is the second such vessel to be chartered. The first has been holding 57 migrants just outside territorial waters for almost a week.
While citing COVID-19 as the reason for closing the ports, the government has sharply criticised the European Union after commitments by member states to take migrants landed in Malta were not honoured.
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