ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th August, 2018) Almost 140 migrants, who had been stranded in the Mediterranean for days on board the Italian Coast Guard's Diciotti vessel, disembarked in the Sicilian port of Catania amid a probe into Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, local media reported.
After the migrants left the vessel late on Saturday, they were transported to a center in Messina in Sicily, the Rai news broadcaster reported.
On August 15, 177 migrants were rescued and taken aboard Diciotti in Maltese waters, however, Valetta rejected Romes request to allow it to disembark the rescued migrants in Malta.
The Italian authorities refused to let the migrants off the vessel, too. Salvini, who also works as the deputy prime minister, called for the settlement of the situation on the European level so that the migrants on board Diciotti would be accepted by the blocs member states on a quota basis.
On Wednesday, the Italian authorities allowed 27 unaccompanied minors to disembark, while late on Saturday, 13 sick people were also allowed to leave the vessel.
On Saturday, Salvini said that Albania, Ireland and the Italian Episcopal Conference agreed to host the remaining 137 migrants.
On the same day, the Italian prosecutors said they were probing one of the cabinet ministers. Media subsequently reported that the inquiry concerned Salvini, adding that it was related to the limitation of the rights of certain individuals in violation of the Italian constitution and criminal law.
The standoff around Diciotti prompted the European Commission to call an informal meeting of senior officials from 12 member states to discuss migration issues on Friday. The session, however, yielded no results.
On Friday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Rome was considering cutting its contributions to the EU long-term budget over Europe's failure to reach agreement on the migrant issue.
Over the recent weeks, the Italian new government, which has pledged to close the countrys borders for migrants, has denied several rescue vessels with hundreds of migrants on board permission to dock. Salvini has said Italy would close its ports to rescue ships run by NGOs in the Mediterranean.
