Erroneous instructions led Italy to accept migrants

Government sources have revealed that a decision by the Italian government to accept 102 asylum seekers stranded aboard the oil tanker MT Salamis came about after the Italian government realised that its coastguard had erroneously told the Greek captain to take the migrants, saved in the Libyan search and rescue region, to Malta.

All throughout last week's crisis, the captain of the Salamis insisted that he had been instructed by the Italian coastguard to rescue the migrants and then to proceed to Malta.

Although the Italian government has stated that the coastguard instructed the Salamis to turn back to Libya, a government source told MaltaToday that originally the Italians instructed the Salamis's captain to head straight to Malta.

The misunderstanding led to a stand-off between the Maltese government and the captain of the Salamis, with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat insisting that the tanker had to deliver the migrants to Libya after having rescued them inside the country's search and rescue zone.

Then on Tuesday evening, a surprising declaration by the Maltese government announced that the Italian government had decided to accept the Salamis, and the tanker sailed to Syracuse. The Italian government's  decision served to boost Muscat's hard-line stand on migration domestically, but he was lambasted in equal measure by the Italian media over his intransigence.