Update 2 | Rescued migrants from Alan Kurdi brought to Malta for resettlement

A patrol boat with the migrants who have been stranded off the Maltese coast for over ten days has brought the rescued migrants to shore.

The 64 migrants that had been aboard the German rescue ship Alan Kurdi disembarked in Malta, before being transferred to Germany and France. 

After 11 days at sea, rescued migrants disembark in Malta

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner broke the news on Twitter, saying he had been in touch with his Maltese counterpart - Michael Farrugia - about the impasse. 

"I confirmed that France, like Germany and several other European partners, will show solidarity and welcome the refugees aboard the Alan Kurdi, allowing them to disembark at Valletta," Castaner tweeted.

READ ALSO: Sea-Eye ship ‘Alan Kurdi’: situation ‘alarming’ for 64 refused safe port

The 64 migrants aboard the rescue vessel include 12 women and a baby, picked up off the Libyan coast on 3 April. 

The vessel had already tried to enter Lampedusa, but Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini refused to grant them access. He had said Berlin should take them instead, seeing as how the vessel was operated by a German NGO, Sea-Eye.

The reaction of the migrants aboard Alan Kurdi when they hear the news that they will finally disembark (Credit: Sea-Eye)

Castaner stated that French officials from the interior ministry would be sent to Malta in the coming hours ‘to facilitate the transfer to France of 20 people needing protection’.

Sea-Eye: why did we have to wait?

"It is simply not explainable why it was necessary for people to stay on board during the long negotiations while governments negotiated 64 individual fates," said Gorden Isler, Chairman of Sea-Eye.

Sea-Eye said that politicians in Europe were reinterpreting reality when they spoke about "pressure" that they endured over the migrant situation in the Mediterranean. "What about the pressure that 64 people in distress had to endure on a rubber dinghy? What about the pressure that has been put on our crew and 64 rescued people for eleven days," Isler continued.