THE civil refugee rescue fleet has expressed dismay over the EU’s failure yesterday to agree to a temporary scheme to distribute refugees saved from a watery grave in the Mediterranean.

The emergency mechanism put to the meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg yesterday was drafted by France, Germany, Italy and Malta last month after a summer in which several migrant rescue ships were refused a port to disembark the people they had saved at sea. 

The so-called Malta deal met a tepid response. Of 28 member states, only three— Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal — expressed any desire to join the initiative.