A first group of 59 refugees who had been left stranded at sea for five days before being taken in by Malta have arrived in France.
All 141 migrants who arrived in Malta aboard the MV Aquarius on August 15 will eventually be relocated to France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain under an ad-hoc agreement.
The migrants who left for Paris were assisted by the UN's International Organisation for Migration, Maltese authorities, and French officials.
They had been identified by French asylum officials as persons in need of protection, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said in a statement. Most of the 59 were from Eritrea and Sudan.
"This relocation effort represents a prime example of how European solidarity can achieve results to rapidly resolve cases requiring timely solutions to address humanitarian urgencies," French Deputy Ambassador Vanessa Salas Pouget said before the migrants departed on Thursday.
The Maltese government said it had made a "concession" allowing the vessel to enter its ports despite having no legal obligation to do so.
The Aquarius, a rescue ship operated by charity SOS Mediterranee with assistance from Doctors without Borders (MSF), was stranded halfway between Malta and Italy as both countries blocked its arrival.
It was the second time the ship was left without a port: in June it was forced to travel more than 1000km to the Spanish port of Valencia after a week stranded at sea.
Collomb warned that ad-hoc solutions to stalemates over migrants and refugees rescued at sea "are not satisfactory: A long-term solution is needed at the European level."
Since June, Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been denying charity rescue ships docking rights in Italian ports.
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