Spain offered today 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. Malta and the new populist government in Italy each refused to take the migrants in, accusing one another of failing to meet their obligations.
The row has triggered international concern about the migrants' plight.
The refusal to accept the Aquarius in Italy was the first major anti-migrant move since far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini took office this month.
But Spain's new Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed to allow the Aquarius to dock in its eastern port of Valencia, 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," his office said in a statement.
SOS Mediterranee director general Sophie Beau said Spain's offer "is encouraging and shows that some states are sensitive to the humanitarian emergency." She warned that the ship will have to travel some 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) to reach the Spanish coast and that by tomorrow "there will be no more food (on board) apart from energy biscuits."
Muscat tweeted his thanks to Sanchez "for agreeing to accept the Aquarius after Italy violated international law and caused an impasse." He added: "It will be necessary to sit down and discuss how to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future. This is a European issue."
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