The Government of Ireland will accept five unaccompanied child migrants who have been rescued from the Mediterranean. The rescue ships arrived to Malta weeks ago but were refused permission to access ports, leaving around 50 refugees including women and children in bad health condition to wait on the ships. In addition to Ireland other refugees will be sent to Germany, France, Portugal, Ireland, Romania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy. The reactions to the deal reached by European countries
"The past weeks have not been Europe's finest hour ... If human values and solidarity are not upheld, then it is not Europe," the EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said.
Amnesty International's Southern Europe researcher Elisa De Pieri said "the dangerous, unseemly spectacle of politicians bickering whilst women, men and children are stranded in a sea of cruel indifference, must not be repeated".