Migrant rescue ship finally arrives in Italian port after standoff

A vessel owned by a German aid organization that was carrying 42 migrants has arrived at the Italian island of Lampedusa after a two-week standoff with Rome.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had explicitly told Sea-Watch 3's captain, Carola Rackete, that her ship was not welcome and that it could be impounded and its crew arrested and fined if it continued into Italian waters.

"The right to defend our borders is sacred," ABC News quoted Salvini as saying after Sea-Watch 3 picked up the migrants off the coast of Libya and headed for Italy.

Italian media have played a recording of the ship's captain telling the authorities she was heading for an Italian mooring on Wednesday "because I cannot guarantee the safety of the people on board anymore".

The port authorities replied: "You are not authorized to enter Italian waters."

Salvini said the ship was sailing under a Dutch flag and was not Italy's responsibility. He urged it to make for Malta, Tunisia, or ports in northern Europe but the ship's crew said Lampedusa was the nearest safe port to where the migrants were picked up.

Salvini said in a Facebook post during the standoff: "We will use every lawful means to stop an outlaw ship, which puts dozens of migrants at risk for a dirty political game."

Italy's premier, Giuseppe Conte, met with Salvini and Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi to discuss the situation.

Rackete said in a video posted on Twitter that the Italian authorities had boarded the ship to check the crews' passports and that port personnel were "waiting for further instructions from their superiors".

"I really hope they will take the rescues off the ship soon," she added, noting that the migrants were exhausted and needed to reach safety.

Sea-Watch, the organization that owns the ship, said it asked Malta if it would take the migrants and was turned down. Spokesman Ruben Neugebereger said the group had also asked the European Union to intervene.

EU spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud told the BBC the bloc had contacted member states but had not immediately found one that was willing to take the migrants.

Sea-Watch said the migrants were disappointed on Tuesday, before their arrival in Italy, when the European Court of Human Rights rejected their plea to be allowed to legally disembark in Italy.

Many of the migrants claim to have been tortured in Libya. The 42 had been part of a group that originally numbered 53. Eleven have been evacuated to Italy for medical treatment.

Italy has been a favored destination for migrants leaving the African continent by boat and the United Nations' International Organization for Migration says around 3,200 people have reached Italy and Malta from Africa since the start of 2019. It says around 350 others died while trying to make the journey.