Rescued Sea Watch migrants to land in Italy after deal

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday that 47 rescued migrants aboard the Sea Watch NGO vessel could finally disembark after Italy and six other countries agreed to take them in. France, Germany, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Luxembourg have all now offered to accept some of the migrants who have been stuck on the Sea Watch 3 vessel since January 19, “Luxembourg has joined the list of friendly countries that responded to our invitation (to take the migrants), now we are seven countries,” Conte told journalists.

“Disembarking will begin in the coming hours.” The fate of the migrants has been at the centre of a standoff between Italy’s far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini -- who has closed the ports to migrants and demanded Europe take its share -- and the German NGO Sea Watch.

The aid group on Friday filed an urgent case at the European Human Rights Court against Italy for refusing to allow its ship to dock and the mainly sub-Saharan migrants, including 15 minors, to disembark. Rescuers say they include youngsters bearing the scars of violence suffered in crisis-hit Libya. Sea Watch 3 is sailing under a Dutch flag and currently sheltering from bad weather off Sicily.