The Corona crisis has made it difficult to provide aid for migrants rescued from distress for weeks - and, above all, has brought Italy and Malta to the limits of their resilience. Aid from Germany should now start up again.
Brussels (dpa) - Germany wants to relieve the Mediterranean countries Malta and Italy from rescued migrants. "We will also accept migrants in these cases," said Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), referring to the people who were last saved.
"The fact that there was a dent is simply due to the development of the corona," said Seehofer. Germany had actually helped Italy and Malta regularly in the past. In the Corona crisis, however, no more commitments were made recently. The situation is currently easing, said Seehofer. However, he could not yet state the exact number of people Germany would take in because talks were still ongoing.
Malta had over 400 rescued migrants ashore over the weekend. Many of them had previously been stuck on small quarantine ships off the Mediterranean for several weeks, some since April 30th. According to the EU Commission on Monday, Luxembourg, France and Portugal are also ready to take Malta's people away. Seehofer's promise also affects migrants from the "Alan Kurdi" and "Aita Mari" rescue ships. Both were arrested by Italian authorities in early May.
Italy and Malta said in the pandemic of Corona that they could no longer offer safe havens for migrants and demand more support from the other EU countries.
