On July 14, 2006, José Durá "Pepe" and nine other crew members of the fishing boat 'Francisco y Catalina' made the decision, purportedly under what they called the "Law of the Sea," to take aboard 51 Eritrean immigrants stranded ten miles off Malta, including a 2-year-old girl and a pregnant woman. For nine long days, the vessel awaited a decision from European authorities.