Dozens of migrants disembark from Italian coast guard ship amid row

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Dozens of migrants were permitted to disembark from an Italian coast guard ship in Sicily late Thursday, after they were held at the port over suspicions that some had been involved in a reported mutiny.

Police and coastguards escorted some of the migrants off the "Diciotti," according to an AFP reporter at the scene, while Italian media showed them boarding black buses waiting for them on the quay.

Migrants stand on the bridge of Italy's Diciotti coast guard vessel carrying 67 asylum seekers berthed at Trapani port on July 12, 2018. /VCG Photo

The 67 migrants – including three women and six children – were earlier held at the port in Trapani as a row brewed over reports that a handful of the group revolted after they were rescued, amid fears that they would be returned to Libya.

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said earlier Thursday night that they would be allowed off the boat once identification procedures had been achieved "in particular for those who may have committed a crime".

Initially picked up by a supply vessel the "Vos Thalassa" over the weekend, the migrants were subsequently transferred to a coast guard ship after staff made emergency calls to authorities in Rome.

The incident comes as tensions over migration rise in Europe, with 28 EU interior ministers meeting Thursday in the Austrian city of Innsbruck for a summit focused on finding a common migration plan.

Italy's Matteo Salvini attends a news conference about a trilateral meeting, during an informal meeting of EU Home Affairs Ministers in Innsbruck, Austria, July 12, 2018. /VCG Photo

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini – who has authority over the country's ports – initially refused to allow the Diciotti to dock, despite previously saying ports would remain open for Italian naval and coast guard ships carrying migrants.

According to Italian media the standoff was resolved after a call in the afternoon from President Sergio Mattarella to Conte.

Salvini, who wants to stop migrants arriving at Italian coasts, has banned charity rescue boats operating in the Mediterranean from docking in Italy, accusing them of aiding human traffickers to bring migrants to Europe.

The case of the Diciotti has also highlighted a split within Italy's coalition government, which includes the League and Luigi Di Maio's Five Star Movement whose left fringe is opposed to the closing of Italian ports.

Source(s): AFP