Mainly from Eritrea, the migrants will be shared out between Spain, Libya, Italy, Andorra. They are grateful to the crew who picked them up. For some of the fishermen though, the incident has left a sour taste: “It’s incredible, the reaction of the international community will make us think twice about saving immigrants adrift again and that’s awful.”
Since January almost 1,000 migrants have landed on Malta, which has a total population of just 400,000.