Non-EU country Norway has accepted to take some of the migrants who disembarked in Malta on Wednesday from the NGO rescue ship MV Lifeline.
Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat thanked the Norwegian government for the gesture.
Dr Muscat on Wednesday announced that the migrants were to be shared by France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium and Malta.
The Lifeline, with 233 migrants on board, docked in Valletta harbour on Wednesday evening after a six-day standoff as both Italy and Malta banned it from their harbours.
The 233 immigrants whose rescue sparked another migration crisis, are undergoing a preliminary assessment at a reception centre, following which the distribution of “genuine asylum seekers” will start immediately, the Maltese government said in a statement.
They criticised its captain for having picked up the migrants in Libyan waters in defiance of orders for the migrants to be transferred to the Libyan coastguard.
The captain is being questioned by the police and the ship had been detained pending investigations into its registration.
