The Sea-Watch 3 migrant-rescue ship remained anchored in front of the port of Lampedusa on Thursday after defying an order from Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to stay out of Italian waters.
Captain Carola Rackete decided to defy the ban on Wednesday, saying she needed get 42 migrants who have been at sea since they were rescued off Libya two weeks ago onto land.
League party Salvini has called for arrests to be made and Rackete could be probed for favouring illegal immigration.
Salvini said Wednesday that the ship had committed a hostile act and he called on the Netherlands to take in the migrants on board. The search-and-rescue ship flies the Dutch flag, although it is run by a German NGO. "The Sea-Watch has carried out a political battle on the backs of 42 people," Salvini, who has spearheaded the government's tough stance of refusing access to NGO-run search-and-rescue ships to Italy's ports, said via Twitter on Thursday.
"It could have got to Holland twice in two weeks. They have rejected nearer safe ports.
"The NGOs help human traffickers". In the meantime a small boat carrying 10 migrants, presumably Tunisians, arrived in the port of Lampedusa at dawn on Thursday.
The 10 migrants included a woman and minor, sources said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
