Stop making unfounded claims, Malta tells Salvini

The Maltese government has urged Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to check his facts before accusing Malta of failing to fulfil voluntary migrant reallocation pledges. In a statement, the government expressed "disdain and surprise" at what it described as inaccurate allegations by Mr Salvini, who is renowned for his anti-migrant agenda. The Italian right-wing leader in a tweet accused Malta of failing to relocate migrants it had pledged to take from his country, as opposed to Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. But the Maltese government recalled that Italy had pledged to take 50 migrants from Malta after the NGO vessel Lifeline docked in Malta at the end of another bitter political dispute. When another case occurred in July and Italy requested support for a voluntary intra-EU reallocation of migrants, Malta was the first nation to respond by pledging to take migrants from Italy, the same number Rome had earlier pledged to take from Malta in the Lifeline case. After several requests from Malta, when the Italian and Maltese experts eventually got together to decide the modalities to fulfil these pledges it was agreed that since both countries had agreed to...