MADRID (Reuters) - Spain offered on Monday to take in a rescue ship that is drifting in the Mediterranean sea with 629 migrants on board after Italy and Malta refused to let it dock.

The Aquarius ship picked up the migrants, including 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 other children and seven pregnant women, from inflatable boats off the coast of Libya at the weekend.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who took office just over a week ago, has given instructions for the boat to be admitted to the eastern port of Valencia, his office said in a statement. </s> The minister is being seen as making good on ‘get-tough’ anti-immigration electoral promises by banning the boat in a move which has seismic implications for the EU and international asylum policy. The ship Aquarius, carrying 629 migrants from Libya, including seven pregnant women, is operated by the charities Medecins Sans Frontieres and Sos Mediterranee. The vessel remains afloat in the Med, unable to dock. Mr Salvini, who is also head of the hard right, anti-immigrant Lega party, could end up closing every Italian port. He took to Facebook to explain his move and wrote: “Enough. Saving lives is a duty, transforming Italy in a refugee camp isn’t. “Italy is done with taking orders, this time there is someone saying no.

“France pushes people back at the border, Spain defends its frontier with weapons. “From today, Italy will also start to say no to human trafficking, no to the business of illegal immigration.” But Mr Salvini’s decision has incensed Maltese politicians who have also refused to take in the migrants. Malta’s prime minister Joseph Muscat said: “The Italian government is breaching international rules and, with its attitude, is risking to create a situation that would be dangerous to everyone. “Malta is respecting international rules and, therefore, can’t let Aquarius dock at its port.

“Nevertheless I am very worried for the direction taken by Italian authorities.” On Sunday Maltese defence experts even accused the new Italian government of deliberately inflaming pan-European politics, according to Italian newspaper Repubblica. One said: “Rome is seeking a diplomatic incident”. They explained that Valletta had no responsibility over the people aboard of Aquarius as they had been saved by Italian Navy in Libyan waters. SOS Mediterranee confirmed that there were 629 people on board, including 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 other children and seven pregnant women after being involved in six rescue operations off the coast of Libya. One of the rescues was carried out in collaboration with Italian naval units, which later transferred the refugees onto the Aquarius. The charity added on Twitter: “We have acknowledged what was stated by the Italian interior minister to Italian media.

“Our only goal is to let the people we assisted yesterday in difficult conditions to dock in a secure port.” Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, who is nominally in charge of the ports, said: “Malta cannot continue looking the other way when it comes to respecting international conventions.” But the mayor of Naples opposed to the direction taken by the government. Left-wing mayor Luigi De Magistris said he would welcome in the humanitarian boat and added: “Naples is ready, without funds, to save lives.” The Dublin Regulation, the set of EU rules focused on immigration, generally require the migrants' first country of entry to examine their asylum claims. By not letting migrants in, Mr Salvini is trying to avoid Italy to take upon itself this burden. </s> Spain offered Monday to take in a ship stranded in the Mediterranean with 629 migrants aboard after Italy and Malta refused to let the vessel dock in their ports.

The migrants, including pregnant women and scores of children, were saved by the French charity SOS Mediterranee on Saturday.

They were taken on board its ship Aquarius, which is now between Malta and Sicily.

But Malta and Italy — whose new populist government has vowed a tough new stance on immigration — have both refused to take the migrants in, triggering concern in the international community about their plight.

Spain’s new Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed to allow the ship to dock in its eastern port of Valencia.

“The prime minister has given instructions for Spain to honour international commitments on humanitarian crises and announced that the country will receive the ship Aquarius,” his office said in a statement.

“It is our obligation to help to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and to offer a safe port to these people.”

The UN had called on Malta and Italy to immediately allow the boat to dock, describing the situation as “an urgent humanitarian imperative”.

It suggested that the hundreds on board “are running out of provisions.”

The EU and the bloc’s biggest member state Germany made similar pleas.

“The priority of both the Italian and Maltese authorities should be ensuring these people receive the care they need,” European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters, calling for a “swift resolution”.

Italy’s refusal to take in the migrants is the first sign of the new government’s hardened stance on immigration.

Its far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini showed no sign of backing down on Monday.

“Saving lives is a duty, turning Italy into a huge refugee camp is not. Italy is done bending over backwards and obeying, this time THERE IS SOMEONE WHO SAYS NO,” he wrote on Twitter followed by the hashtag #closethedoors.

The Maltese government insisted it was “acting in full conformity with its international obligations”.

SOS Mediterranee tweeted late Sunday that the Aquarius had received instructions from the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre to stand by in its current position 35 nautical miles from Italy and 27 nautical miles from Malta.

“We haven’t moved since last night, people are starting to wonder why we’ve stopped,” journalist Anelise Borges, who is aboard the Aquarius, said in a tweet.

MSF Sea (Doctors Without Borders) said the medical situation of those on board was “stable for now but unnecessary delay to disembarkation in safe port puts vulnerable patients at risk.”

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Sunday that Rome had sent two patrol ships with doctors on board “ready to intervene and ensure the health of anyone on board the Aquarius who might have the need”.

The migrants were rescued in six separate night-time operations in the central Mediterranean on Saturday.

“The people we saved yesterday were in a difficult condition, at least 50 were at risk of drowning. We need to have an idea of what port to go to, something that up to now we haven’t had,” Aquarius crew member Alessandro Porro told news channel Sky TG24 on Sunday.

The French organisation said those brought on board included 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 small children and the seven pregnant women.

Under EU rules migrants must apply for asylum in the European country where they first arrive.

That has put pressure on Italy and Greece, the entry points for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia since 2015.

Some in Italy have offered to take in migrants. The mayor of Taranto, Rinaldo Melucci said the southern port city was “ready to embrace every life in danger”.

Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris said on Twitter that “if a minister without a heart leaves pregnant women, children, old people, human beings to die, the port of Naples is ready to welcome them”.

EU leaders in December had set an end-June deadline for an overhaul of rules to create a permanent mechanism to deal with migrants in the event of a new emergency.

The summer of 2016 saw a surge in mass drownings in the Mediterranean, at the peak of Europe’s worst migration crisis since World War II. </s> Spain stepped up Monday and offered to take in a rescue ship carrying more than 600 migrants after Italy and Malta refused. The diplomatic standoff left the migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea and revealed the brass-knuckled negotiating tactics of Italy's new anti-immigrant government.

Italy and Malta quickly thanked Spain's new Socialist prime minister for the offer to receive aid group SOS Mediterranee's ship at the port of Valencia. But it wasn't certain if the voyage was feasible given the distance and how long the rescue vessel had been at sea.

The Aquarius on Monday was more than 750 nautical miles from Valencia and said it had received no instructions yet to head to Spain.

"It means that we need at least two more days of sailing, which is not possible today with 629 people on board," SOS Mediterranee Maritime Operations Manager Antoine Laurent said.

The U.N. refugee agency, the European Union, Germany and humanitarian groups had all demanded that the Mediterranean countries put their domestic politics aside and urgently consider the plight of the 629 migrants, among them more than 100 children, pregnant women and people suffering from hypothermia.

"The duty of a democratic government is not to look away" in a humanitarian crisis, said Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, who also offered her port as a potential solution to the standoff.

Doctors Without Borders, which has staff aboard the Aquarius, said the rescued migrants were stable for now but that food and water on the ship would run out by Monday night. It said some of the passengers were suffering from water in their lungs as well as chemical burns caused when gasoline mixes with seawater. Seven are pregnant.

"The team is still a bit calm and we know the situation is stable but it cannot run" forever, SOS Mediterranee's Laurent said.

Despite the diplomatic pressure, Italy and Malta held firm, with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini clearly using the high seas drama as a pretext to force the hand of Italy's European neighbors. Italy has long demanded that the EU change its migration policy and make good on promises to accept more refugees, saying that Italy has been left alone to coordinate rescues and accept tens of thousands of migrants a year for asylum processing.

"Enough!" Salvini said Monday. "Saving lives is a duty, but transforming Italy into an enormous refugee camp isn't."

He tweeted: #Chiudiamoiporti. "We're closing the ports."

Satisfied with Spain's offer, Salvini later told reporters the standoff with Malta was "an important first signal" that Italy would no longer tolerate being left alone to accept and process would-be refugees. He vowed to also cut the funding Italy provides migrants as they wait to be processed.

"Apparently raising your voice pays off," he said.

The migrants had been rescued from flimsy smugglers' boats in the Mediterranean during a series of operations Saturday by Italian naval ships, cargo vessels and the Aquarius itself. All passengers were offloaded to the Aquarius to be taken to land.

Italy argued that Malta should accept the Aquarius because Malta was the safest, closest port to the ship. Malta said Italy coordinated the rescues and that the tiny island nation — which in the last few years has only accepted a few hundred migrants — has had nothing to do with it.

Maltese Premier Joseph Muscat accused Italy of violating international norms governing sea rescues and said its stance risked "creating a dangerous situation for all those involved."

Spain's new Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, ordered authorities in Valencia to open the port, saying "it's our duty to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and offer a secure port for these people."

But it wasn't clear if the offer would be taken up given that the trip would expose the migrants to several days more on the sea.

Laurent, of SOS Mediterranee, acknowledged Spain's offer of solidarity but said it wasn't up to the Rome-based rescue coordination center run by the Italian coast guard. And he said the logistics and time counted against setting a course for Spain.

"We would need a resupply at sea which is not so easy to organize so we urge Italy to find a solution very soon close to our position," he told The Associated Press in Paris.

Still, both Muscat and new Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte readily thanked Spain for the offer, with Conte saying "it goes in the direction of solidarity."

As the rhetoric intensified, the Aquarius remained on standby in the Mediterranean Sea with its 629 passengers, including 123 unaccompanied minors. The ship said it had been ordered by Italy's coast guard late Sunday to remain 35 miles off Italy and 27 miles from Malta, and there it remained Monday.

A doctor on the ship, Dr. David Beversluis, said there were no medical emergencies onboard but one passenger had to be revived after he was rescued.

"When the boat broke, a man sank in front of the eyes of the rescuers, who managed to catch him and revive him once out of the water. He is now out of danger," Beversluis said. "All the survivors are exhausted and dehydrated because they spent many hours adrift in these boats."

Almost a quarter of the migrant survivors hail from Sudan, the group said.

Doctors Without Borders tweeted a video of some of the women aboard the ship praying Monday morning, saying they were unaware of the diplomatic fight being waged over their fate.

"Thank you, Lord," the women sang.

The standoff marked the first inevitable clash over migrant policy with League leader Salvini, who is now running Italy's Interior Ministry. Salvini campaigned on an anti-immigrant platform that included a vow to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants already in Italy, even though experts doubt such mass deportations are feasible or financially viable.

Malta, for its part, has consistently refused to take in migrants, citing its small size and limited capacities. The island nation has reduced the number of migrants it has taken in over the past decade, from a high of 2,775 in 2008 to just 23 last year, according to U.N. statistics.

Salvini pointed to Malta's unwillingness to help in accusing Europe as a whole of leaving Italy on its own to deal with the refugee crisis. He noted that other European countries are very much involved in migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean — including a German aid group currently off the coast Libya — but no country is stepping up to actually take in the migrants once they are plucked from boats or the sea. </s> MADRID: A Spanish NGO said on Saturday it had rescued 59 migrants as they tried to cross the Mediterranean from Libya, drawing condemnation from Italy’s far-right interior minister who said they were not welcome in his country.

The news comes a day after three babies were found dead and 100 more went missing in a shipwreck apparently caused by an explosion on board a boat that had set off from Libya.

It also follows a controversial deal reached by EU member states to stem the influx of migrants. The accord struck on Friday includes the setting up of secure centres for migrants in the bloc, "disembarkation platforms" outside the bloc and sharing out refugees among member states.

Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms said on Twitter the 59 migrants were now on board their ship "heading for a secure port".

"Despite the hurdles, we continue to protect the right to life of invisible people. Their stories on what they experienced in Libya are terrifying."

Italy’s hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said on Facebook that the NGO’s boat had reached the migrants’ vessel before Libyan coastguards inside Libya’s rescue operation zone.

"The nearest port is Malta, the organisation and flag are Spanish: they can forget about coming to an Italian port," he added.

Malta’s interior minister retorted on Twitter that the migrants had been rescued between Libya and Italy’s Lampedusa.

"Stop spreading incorrect information by pointing the finger at Malta without any reason," Michael Farrugia said.

It is unclear where the vessel will anchor. Italy’s new populist government and Malta earlier this month refused to let dock French NGO rescue ship Aquarius carrying 630 migrants. The move triggered an international outcry before Spain stepped in to help. Malta then let another charity rescue boat, Lifeline, dock with 230 migrants aboard. </s> MADRID - A Spanish NGO said Saturday it had rescued 59 migrants as they tried to cross the Mediterranean from Libya, drawing condemnation from Italy's far-right interior minister who said they were not welcome in his country.

The news comes a day after three babies were found dead and 100 more went missing in a shipwreck apparently caused by an explosion on board a boat that had set off from Libya.

It also follows a controversial deal reached by EU member states to stem the influx of migrants. The accord struck Friday includes the setting up of secure centres for migrants in the bloc, "disembarkation platforms" outside the bloc and sharing out refugees among member states. Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms said on Twitter the 59 migrants were now on board their ship "heading for a secure port".

"Despite the hurdles, we continue to protect the right to life of invisible people. Their stories on what they experienced (in) Libya are terrifying."

Italy's hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said on Facebook that the NGO's boat had reached the migrants' vessel before Libyan coastguards inside Libya's rescue operation zone.

"The nearest port is Malta, the organisation and flag are Spanish: they can forget about coming to an Italian port," he added. Malta's interior minister retorted on Twitter that the migrants had been rescued between Libya and Italy's Lampedusa.

"Stop spreading incorrect information by pointing the finger at Malta without any reason," Michael Farrugia said. It is unclear where the vessel will anchor.

Italy's new populist government and Malta earlier this month refused to let dock French NGO rescue ship Aquarius carrying 630 migrants. The move triggered an international outcry before Spain stepped in to help.

Malta then let another charity rescue boat, Lifeline, dock with 230 migrants aboard.

Earlier in June, Malta allowed charity rescue boat Lifeline to dock in its port with 230 migrants. </s> Italy's rejection of NGO ships carrying hundreds of migrants rescued from the Mediterranean has provoked new tensions in Europe over the handling of illegal migration.

With tensions high ahead of an EU summit starting Thursday, here is a timeline of the latest standoff which started more than two weeks ago.

Overnight on June 9 the rescue boat Aquarius, operated by French charity SOS Mediterranee, picks up 629 African migrants from the central Mediterranean.

Among them are at least seven pregnant women, 11 under-13s and 123 unaccompanied adolescents.

The Aquarius, sailing between Malta and Sicily, seeks a secure harbour to make land.

But Italy, whose new populist government has vowed a tough stance on immigration, closes its ports to the ship on June 9, insisting that Malta takes it in. Valetta also refuses.

On June 11, as international criticism grows, Spain's new Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says the stranded vessel can dock in the eastern port of Valencia.

The French charity running Aquarius warns the ship will have to travel 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) to reach Valencia and food supplies on board will run short.

SOS Mediterranee says the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre will transfer some of the migrants onto two Italian boats for the journey.

The three boats set sail for Valencia on June 12 as a political storm erupts among European leaders.

After several turbulent days at sea, the migrants begin disembarking in Valencia on June 17, met by a team of more than 2,000 people including 1,000 Red Cross volunteers and 470 translators

On June 12 French President Emmanuel Macron accuses Italy's leaders of "cynicism and irresponsibility" in refusing the ship.

The Italian government responds that it will not accept "hypocritical lessons from countries that have preferred to look the other way on immigration."

Three days later, Macron meets Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Paris on June 15 with the pair agreeing the EU should set up asylum processing centres in Africa to prevent "voyages of death".

On June 13, the hardline interior ministers of Austria, Germany and Italy form an "axis of the willing" to combat illegal immigration.

In Germany, hardliners in Merkel's conservative bloc on June 18 give her an ultimatum to tighten asylum rules or risk pitching the country into a political crisis that would also rattle Europe.

In a bid to address the crisis, an emergency mini-summit of 16 EU leaders is called for June 24. But it is riven with divisions and snubbed by countries taking a hardline on migrant arrivals, including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

On June 21, Italy threatens to seize two rescue ships -- the Lifeline and the Seefuchs, both from German NGOs -- on suspicion they may be "illegally" flying the Dutch flag.

Italy and Malta also refuse to allow the Lifeline, carrying more than 230 people including pregnant women and children, to dock, and it is stranded in the Mediterranean.

Valetta, where the Seefuchs is moored, delivers humanitarian aid to the Lifeline.

On June 24, Italy's hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tells foreign charities to stop rescuing migrants off Libya. Spanish NGO Proactiva accuses Rome of preventing its ship, Open Arms, from rescuing 1,000 migrants.

A day later, Salvini heads to Tripoli where he calls for processing centres to be set up south of Libya's borders as a way to block migrants bent on crossing the Mediterranean.

A container ship belonging to Denmark's Maersk, which is carrying 108 rescued migrants, says it is stuck off Sicily and waiting for instructions from Italian authorities. </s> Aquarius leaving the harbour of Marseille, southeastern France, on August 1, 2018. BORIS HORVAT / AFP

Spain and Portugal on Tuesday offered to take in most of the 141 migrants on board the Aquarius after it was given permission to dock in Malta, resolving a new standoff over the rescue ship.

Madrid said it would accept 60 people, while Portugal offered to welcome 30, with the remainder distributed between France, Germany and Luxembourg, government sources in Malta and Spain said.

The boat was initially refused entry by Italy and Malta after rescuing the migrants in two separate missions off the Libyan coast on Friday.

The Aquarius, which hit the headlines in June after being stranded with 630 migrants on board, causing a major diplomatic row, resumed its rescue operations off Libya last week.

Spain's new Socialist government helped resolve the first standoff by allowing the boat to dock in Valencia and was again at the forefront of the solution on Tuesday.

"Spain has coordinated a pioneering agreement with six countries to share the hosting of the people on the Aquarius... Spain will take 60 people," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

Malta confirmed afterwards it would allow the ship to dock to disembark its passengers, many of whom are unaccompanied children from violence-wracked Somalia and repressive Eritrea.

"Malta will be making a concession allowing the vessel to enter its ports, despite having no legal obligation to do so," said a government statement posted on Twitter.

 

 European attitudes hardening

After elections in March that brought a populist, anti-immigrant government to power in Italy, new far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini began turning away rescue ships operated by foreign NGOs.

For years, Italy had pleaded with its EU partners for help with a massive influx of arrivals that has seen 700,000 people land in the country since 2013, most of whom had made the short but treacherous sea crossing from Libya.

On Saturday, Salvini said the Aquarius would "never see an Italian port" again, accusing it of encouraging smugglers and migrants to take to the water in the knowledge that they will be rescued.

The Italian coast guard continues to rescue migrants, however.

Malta's government had initially defended its decision to turn the Aquarius away, saying it was "neither the coordinating nor the competent authority for such a rescue" and had "no legal obligation" to provide a place of safety.

The government of Gibraltar also announced late Monday that the ship would no longer be allowed to operate under its maritime flag; it was registered on the British overseas territory in 2009.

The increasingly hostile stance reflects hardening public opinion in Europe towards migrants following the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war or poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

The Aquarius has become a symbol of the unwillingness of many European countries to accept more newcomers, with Italy siding with conservative governments in eastern Europe intent on keeping out migrants.

France's President Emmanuel Macron was criticised by leftwing opponents in June for failing to offer the migrants safe haven, despite it being the next closest location to the boat after Italy and Malta.

France ended up taking in 78 of the migrants after they landed in Spain.

French public opinion was against accepting the Aquarius during the first crisis and the rightwing Republicans party and far-right National Rally both argued on Tuesday against allowing the boat to dock.

A spokesman for the National Rally suggested the ship should head for a port in Tunisia. </s> A ship carrying hundreds of migrants was stuck at sea Monday after Italy and the small Mediterranean island nation of Malta both refused to allow the rescue vessel to dock.

Aid group SOS Mediterranee said the 629 passengers aboard the Aquarius had been caught up in a crackdown promoted by the right-wing partner in Italy's new populist government, which has vowed to stop the country from becoming the "refugee camp of Europe."

Those aboard the ship included 400 people picked up by the Italian navy, that country's coast guard and private cargo ships who were transferred onto the vessel. The crew of the Aquarius also pulled 229 migrants from the water or from traffickers' unseaworthy boats Saturday night, including 123 unaccompanied minors and seven pregnant women.

Later, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his country would take in the migrants.

"It is our obligation to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and offer a 'safe harbor' to these people," Spain's presidential office said in a statement.

Malta earlier said the rescue operations took place in international waters off Libya and were coordinated by Italy.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte had said he personally contacted Malta's prime minister, Joseph Muscat, to "take on the human assistance of persons in difficulty aboard the Aquarius."

But Muscat, "while comprehending the situation," rebuffed him, Conte said in a Facebook post late Sunday.

Like Malta, Italy didn't appear to be budging.

Italy's firebrand interior minister, Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-immigrant League party in the governing coalition, has long railed against what he depicts as Europe's failure to show solidarity with Italy during the migrant crisis in recent years.

"Starting today, Italy, too, begins to say NO to the trafficking of human beings, NO to the business of clandestine immigration," Salvini tweeted Sunday.

More than 600,000 migrants have reached Italy by boat from Africa in the past five years. Numbers have dropped dramatically in recent months, but rescues have increased in recent days.

After leading an hours-long meeting with his coalition leaders Sunday night at the premier's office, Conte said Italy was sending two motorboats with medical staff aboard in case the migrants needed help. He made no mention of whether or when the Aquarius might be permitted to get into port.

Salvini and Italian Transportation Minister Danilo Toninelli, who is part of the 5-Star Movement faction in the new government, said in a joint statement Sunday that it was Malta's responsibility to "open its ports for the hundreds of the rescued on the NGO ship Aquarius."

"The island can't continue to turn the other way," the ministers said. "The Mediterranean is the sea of all the countries that face it, and it (Malta) can't imagine that Italy will continue to face this giant phenomenon in solitude."

Earlier, Malta said in a statement that the Aquarius took on the passengers in waters controlled by Libya and where Italian authorities in Rome coordinate search-and-rescue operations.

The Maltese Rescue Coordination Center "is neither the competent nor the coordinating authority," the statement said.

SOS Mediterranean spokeswoman Mathilde Auvillain told The Associated Press the ship was "heading north following instructions received after the rescues and transfers" Saturday night. The Rome-based rescue coordination center gave the instructions.

The aid group said in a statement it had taken "good note" of Salvini's stance, as reported earlier by Italian media. It added that the Aquarius "is still waiting for definitive instructions regarding the port of safety."

SOS Mediterranee said Maltese search-and-rescue authorities were contacted by their Italian counterparts "to find the best solution for the well-being and safety" of the people on the ship.

Human rights groups oppose returning rescued migrants to Libya, where many are held in inhumane conditions, poorly fed and often forced to do slave labor.

Libya was plunged into chaos following a 2011 uprising. The lawlessness in Libya has made it a popular place for migrants to try to depart for Europe.

Driven by violent conflicts and extreme poverty, hundreds of thousands of migrants have reached southern Europe in recent years by crossing the Mediterranean with the help of smugglers.

The United Nations says at least 785 migrants have died crossing the sea so far this year.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces that he will allow a migrant vessel carrying 629 rescued migrants, including children and pregnant women, to dock in Valencia after Malta and Italy both refused the vessel.