Italy’s deputy prime minister has threatened to pull the country’s EU funding if the bloc does not come to the aid of 150 people stranded aboard an Italian coastguard ship.

The migrants have been blocked at the Sicilian port of Catania on the Diciotti vessel since Monday night because the Italian government is refusing to allow them to disembark without commitments from the EU to take some of them in.

A meeting of high-level representatives from around a dozen EU member states is due to be held on Friday to discuss the issue, according to the Commission.

“In recent months we have had the chance to see how a soft line with the European Union worked and how a hard line works,” Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said in an interview published on Facebook on Thursday.

“If tomorrow (Friday) nothing comes out of the European Commission meeting, if they decide nothing regarding the Diciotti and the redistribution of the migrants, I and the whole Five Star Movement will no longer be prepared to give 20 billion euros ($23 billion) to the European Union every year.”

EU figures for 2016 say Italy contributed just under 14 billion euros to the EU budget — less than one percent of its gross national income — while the bloc spent 11.6 billion euros in Italy.

Di Maio, who heads the anti-establishment Five Star, said Italy didn’t want the “mickey taken out of us by the union’s other countries” on the distribution of migrants.

“The EU was born of principles like solidarity. If it is not capable of redistributing 170 people it has serious problems with its founding principles,” he said in an interview with state broadcaster RAI.

Friday’s meeting follows Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s decision to leave the majority of the migrants on board the Diciotti after they were rescued on August 15.

Migration is a hot-button issue in Italy, where hundreds of thousands of people have arrived since 2013 fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Salvini said in an interview with Corriere Della Sera that the only way the migrants would be let off the Diciotti was “with a nice big airplane from one Europe’s capitals landing in Catania”.

“Europe needs to understand that the Italian government is irritated. We’ve had enough with their many words and few results,” he said, claiming that the other nations had only taken in 12,000 of the 35,000 people they had promised.

Opinion polls suggest that Salvini’s stance has boosted his far-right League party’s approval rating to around 30 percent — over 10 points up from its showing in the March election — and is now level with the Five Star Movement with which it has governed Italy since the start of June.

However, according to Salvini’s own ministry, migrant arrivals are more than 80 percent down on the same period last year, with just over 19,500 arriving up to August 23, compared to to 98,000 in 2017.

In an interview with La Stampa, European Investment Bank vice president Dario Scannapieco said that as of the end of 2017 Italy had spent just 2.5 billion of the 38 billion euros allocated to it by the EU’s Regional Development Fund.</s>Rights official: Italy is unjustly holding migrants on boat

ROME (AP) — A delegation from Italy's rights office on Thursday visited the 150 migrants who have been kept onboard a coast guard vessel for days and concluded they were being held unjustly.

The comments challenge Italy's anti-migrant interior minister, who has declared that no migrants whom he considers "illegal" will set foot in a Sicilian port.

Daniela de Robert, the rights delegation chief, spoke after a three-hour visit aboard the Italian coast guard vessel Diciotti, which is docked in Catania on the Mediterranean island of Sicily.

She told Sky TG24 TV that the migrants on the boat come from countries that could make them eligible for international protection. She said nearly 90 percent are from Eritrea, while the others are from Syria, Sudan and Somalia.

"We found what we thought we'd find: persons deprived of freedom without any measure from judicial authorities," the Italian news agency ANSA quoted her as saying.

She described the situation as a rights violation that would be brought to the attention of prosecutors in Sicily. The office's formal title is "national guarantor of the rights of persons detained or deprived of personal liberty."

The Diciotti rescued the migrants on Aug. 16 after they set sail from Libya in an unseaworthy boat launched by human traffickers. Shortly after the rescue at sea, 13 people with health problems, including children, were evacuated to a hospital. On Wednesday night, 27 unaccompanied minors, all teenagers, were allowed to disembark in Catania following an appeal by a juvenile court judge.

A psychologist who met with the minors said many were males from Eritrea who had been detained for long periods in Libya.

"One boy couldn't see well, he constantly was trying to focus when his eyes were hit by light," said Nathalie Leiba, a psychologist with Doctors without Borders. The boy explained that he had been kept for a year in darkness.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Thursday described those aboard as "illegal immigrants," and said they won't be allowed to step foot on Italian soil. Instead, he insisted fellow European Union nations take in some of the asylum-seekers.

"Italy's no longer Europe's refugee camp," he tweeted. "Upon my authorization, no one is disembarking from the Diciotti."

Giovanna Di Benedetto, a spokeswoman for Save the Children, told Sky TG24 TV at Catania's dock that the minors, including two females, in Libya, had endured "daily horrors."

The rights workers donned masks and gloves to guard against disease for their visit. Most of the migrants aboard have scabies, authorities said.

Salvini leads the League party, a coalition partner in Italy's new populist government, and has promised to relentlessly crack down on illegal immigration. He has expressed irritation that EU nation Malta didn't rescue the migrants when their boat passed through the Maltese search-and-rescue area.

Malta retorted the boat wasn't in distress and that it wanted to keep sailing to Italy.

Some 600,000 migrants in recent years who were rescued from smugglers' boats have landed in southern Italian ports. This year migrant arrivals via the central Mediterranean Sea route to Italy have dropped dramatically and many have shifted over to landing in Spain.

Nonetheless, Salvini is still pressing a crackdown on migrants.

Some officials in the government's main party, the 5-Star Movement, have distanced themselves from Salvini for that reason.

Paola Nugnes, a 5-Star senator, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that "the priority is to safeguard universal rights. Then, but only then, do you turn to Europe to discuss" the solution.

She said the coalition alliance with the right-wing League party has been "complicated" from the start.

Frances D'Emilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com</s>Concern is mounting about the medical and psychological health of 150 migrants who were spending their 10th day stuck aboard a coast guard ship while the Italian government insists that other European Union nations must take them.

Concern is mounting about the medical and psychological health of 150 migrants who were spending their 10th day stuck aboard a coast guard ship while the Italian government insists that other European Union nations must take them.

Stand off between Italy and migrants on nearby ship escalates

The health minister requested an on-board visit by doctors to the Diciotti coast guard ship, which is docked in Catania, Sicily.

After it was done, authorities decided that 16 migrants should be taken off the ship for medical reasons, two of them for suspected cases of tuberculosis and three for pneumonia, Red Cross officials said.

The standoff prompted an impassioned appeal by the UN refugee agency’s chief, asking Italy to let them disembark and urging EU countries to take responsibility for the asylumseekers, most of them young men fleeing harsh conditions in Eritrea.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, speaking in Geneva, said it is time to end a “race to the bottom on who can take the least responsibility for people rescued at sea”.

He urged European countries “to do the right thing and offer places of asylum for people rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in their time of need”.

But Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been adamant that the migrants be kept on the ship until fellow EU nations pledge to take them.

Mr Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, has said he 9s ready to defend his reasons for ordering the migrants kept aboard.

“If someone wants to investigate me, investigate me,” Salvini tweeted.</s>Some 150 migrants who were not being allowed to disembark from an Italian coastguard boat in Sicily have started a hunger strike, an opposition senator said Friday.

“I have just heard from the Port Authority that there is tension aboard the #Diciotti ship and that migrants have started a hunger strike,” Davide Faraone of the Democratic Party wrote on Twitter.

“As a result, visits aboard to express solidarity and verify conditions on the boat have been suspended for security reasons,” he added.

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One hundred and ninety migrants were rescued more than a week ago by the Diciotti on Monday.

Thirteen needing medical assistance were taken onshore while the remaining 177 were taken to Catania.

Under pressure from humanitarian groups, Italy’s hardline Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini let 27 children disembark on Wednesday.

He said however that the remaining migrants would be kept aboard until other European Union nations take them in.

It is the latest in a series of diplomatic spats over boats picking up migrants trying to reach European shores from northern Africa.

The solution to the Diciotti situation “is a nice plane arriving in Catania airport from one of the European capitals” to pick up the migrants, Salvini told Corriere della Sera daily.

A meeting was due to take place in Brussels on Friday among negotiators from 12 member states, with the aim of finding a long-term solution to the migrant rescue problem.

An EU spokesman declined on Thursday to name which countries are participating, but said the meeting is open to anyone “interested in a European solution.”

Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio said Thursday that if “nothing comes out” of the Brussels talks, Italy should block payments into the EU budget.</s>Concern is mounting about the medical and psychological health of 150 migrants who were spending their 10th day stuck aboard a coast guard ship while the Italian government insists that other European Union nations must take them.

The health minister requested an on-board visit by doctors to the Diciotti coast guard ship, which is docked in Catania, Sicily.

After it was done, authorities decided that 16 migrants should be taken off the ship for medical reasons, two of them for suspected cases of tuberculosis and three for pneumonia, Red Cross officials said.

The standoff prompted an impassioned appeal by the UN refugee agency’s chief, asking Italy to let them disembark and urging EU countries to take responsibility for the asylumseekers, most of them young men fleeing harsh conditions in Eritrea.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, speaking in Geneva, said it is time to end a “race to the bottom on who can take the least responsibility for people rescued at sea”.

He urged European countries “to do the right thing and offer places of asylum for people rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in their time of need”.

But Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been adamant that the migrants be kept on the ship until fellow EU nations pledge to take them.

Mr Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, has said he 9s ready to defend his reasons for ordering the migrants kept aboard.

“If someone wants to investigate me, investigate me,” Salvini tweeted.</s>Many of the 150 migrants stranded aboard a coast guard ship for a ninth day began a hunger strike Friday out of frustration that Italy won't let them disembark in Sicily unless fellow European Union nations first pledge to take them, authorities said, in the latest standoff provoked by Italy's anti-migrant interior minister.

"They can do whatever they believe," Interior Minister Matteo Salvini tweeted, shrugging off the development that migrants were refusing meals aboard the Italian coast guard vessel Diciotti. The ship rescued them on Aug. 16 from a foundering human trafficker's boat in the central Mediterranean, and for days now has been docked in the port of Catania, Sicily.

An opposition lawmaker, Sen. Davide Faraone said that on Friday Catania port officials told him "there's tension" on the ship and that migrants have stopped eating.

Thirteen young children and ailing adults were evacuated from the Diciotti early in the drama. On Wednesday, 27 minors, all teenagers, were allowed to disembark in Catania. Salvini has been adamant that Italy's populist government won't allow any of the 150 adults still aboard the vessel disembark unless other EU nations commit to taking the asylum-seekers.

All but about 18 of those aboard are Eritrean; the others are from Somalia, Syria and Sudan. They have told authorities they suffered months and even years of inhumane treatment in detention in Libya, while waiting to leave that lawless country aboard smugglers' boats.

Another opposition lawmaker who went aboard on Thursday expressed particular concern about 11 women, some as young as 19 or 20, still there.

Appealing to Salvini, Laura Boldrini said: "As a father, they could be your daughter. At least let the young women off" the Diciotti.

Sky TG24 TV said some women aboard ate lunch Friday but the men refused the meal.

But Salvini was staying tough, as was fellow deputy premier, Luigi Di Maio, who heads the senior coalition partner, the euro-skeptic 5-Star Movement.

Di Maio threatened that Italy could withhold some of its yearly 20 billion euro ($23 billion) contribution to the bloc if EU nations didn't make good on promises earlier this year for more solidarity toward the Italians, who have seen more than 600,000 rescued migrants brought to Italian shores in recent years.

If the European Commission meeting doesn't "decide anything about the Diciotti ship and the re-distribution of the migrants, I and all the 5-Star Movement are no longer willing to give 20 billion to the European Union," Di Maio said.

In Brussels, EU Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein retorted that "the European Union is a community of rules and it operates on the basis of rules, not threats." He urged "all parties involved to work constructively together to find a swift solution."

A meeting in Brussels Friday of lower-officials from 12 countries, including Italy, was grappling with how to share the migrant burden among EU members. The meeting wasn't called to deal with the Diciotti standoff, but was expected to discuss it.

Raf Casert and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.</s>BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on Europe's migrant crisis (all times local):

Italy's foreign minister says paying EU contributions is a "legal duty," contradicting a populist leader's threat to drop them over the bloc's handling of Europe's migrant crisis.

Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi's assertion, made Friday, followed Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio's threat that Italy will no longer be willing to pay 20-billion euro ($23 billion) annually to the EU if member nations don't take rescued migrants from Italy.

Italy's anti-migrant interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has refused to let 150 migrants off an Italian coast guard ship docked in Catania, Sicily. He insists other EU members take the asylum-seekers, most of them from Eritrea. The coast guard rescued them in the Mediterranean on Aug. 16.

Moavero Milanesi says beyond the migrants' fate, migration issues can't be a matter of "the physical geography of our continent."

Spain is denying that its decision to send back to Morocco 116 migrants who entered the country illegally amounts to a change in migration policy.

Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said Friday that Spain activated a 1992 agreement with Rabat to expel the migrants.

She says they used "unacceptable" violence when they stormed fences separating Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Wednesday. Seven policemen were hurt.

Calvo says Spain will keep receiving migrants rescued in the Mediterranean in a "safe and humanitarian" manner.

Sub-Saharan Africans living illegally in Morocco often try to enter Europe by scaling fences surrounding Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's other North African enclave.

Migrant arrivals in Spain have spiked in recent months, placing strain on public services and putting political pressure on the government.

An Italian lawmaker says rescued migrants stuck aboard an Italian coast guard ship are starting a hunger strike.

Opposition Sen. Davide Faraone, who visited the migrants a day earlier on the Diciotti, tweeted on Friday that Catania port officials told him "there's tension" on the ship, and that migrants have stopped eating out of frustration the Italian government won't let them disembark.

Rescued on Aug. 16 in the Mediterranean Sea, 150 migrants are still on the ship after minors and the sick were allowed off in recent days.

Sky TG24 TV said some women aboard ate lunch Friday but the men refused the meal.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini says other European Union nations must pledge to take the migrants before they can disembark.

Most of the migrants are Eritrean.

The European Union is warning Italy to refrain from issuing threats in the continuing migrant crisis after a prominent government member said that Rome could withhold part of its EU payments.

EU Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein said Friday that "the European Union is a community of rules and it operates on the basis of rules, not threats."

Italy has barred from port some ships with migrants picked up at sea over what it says is sluggishness of other countries to help out. One already-docked ship carrying about 150 is now banned from disembarking adults. Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio said the government could curtail its EU contributions if no solution is found.

Winterstein called on "all parties involved to work constructively together to find a swift solution."

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>A man lies on the deck of the Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti at the Catania harbor, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. An official from Italy's office for personal rights says 150 migrants are being kept aboard without proper authorization aboard an Italian coast guard vessel. Daniela de Robert told Sky TG24 TV after a three-hour visit aboard the Diciotti, that the migrants come from countries from which they should be "easily" able to request refugee status. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted said their rights are being violated because there is no judicial order to prevent their disembarking in Sicily. (Orietta Scardino/ANSA via AP) less

A man lies on the deck of the Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti at the Catania harbor, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. An official from Italy's office for personal rights says 150 migrants are being kept aboard ... more

Former president of the Italian Lower Chamber, Laura Boldrini, center, talks to migrants on the deck of the Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti moored at the Catania harbor, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. An official from Italy's office for personal rights says 150 migrants are being kept aboard without proper authorization aboard an Italian coast guard vessel. Daniela de Robert told Sky TG24 TV after a three-hour visit aboard the Diciotti, that the migrants come from countries from which they should be "easily" able to request refugee status. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted said their rights are being violated because there is no judicial order to prevent their disembarking in Sicily. (Orietta Scardino/ANSA via AP) less

Former president of the Italian Lower Chamber, Laura Boldrini, center, talks to migrants on the deck of the Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti moored at the Catania harbor, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. An ... more

Migrants wait to disembark from Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti in the port of Catania, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. A delegation from Italy’s guarantor of personal rights office has boarded a coast guard ship in a Sicilian port with 150 African migrants stuck aboard for days, after the Italian interior minister vowed none will set foot on Italian soil. (Orietta Scardino/ANSA via AP) less

Migrants wait to disembark from Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti in the port of Catania, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. A delegation from Italy’s guarantor of personal rights office has boarded a coast ... more

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on Europe's migrant crisis (all times local):

Greek police say they have arrested three migrants allegedly responsible for a fatal mugging in which a man fell to his death from a cliff on a hill popular with tourists in central Athens earlier this month.

A police statement says two Pakistanis aged 17 and 28 were detained Thursday at Idomeni, on the border with Macedonia, which they were allegedly planning to cross illegally.

The third man, a 25-year-old Iraqi, was arrested in Athens.

The knifepoint mugging took place on the Hill of Philopappos, opposite the Acropolis, on Aug. 15. It is unclear whether the victim, a 25-year-old Greek studying oversees who was there with a Portuguese friend, was pushed off the cliff or fell trying to avoid the muggers.

Police have arrested several Pakistani men over violent robberies in the area.

Italy's foreign minister says paying EU contributions is a "legal duty," contradicting a populist leader's threat to drop them over the bloc's handling of Europe's migrant crisis.

Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi's assertion, made Friday, followed Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio's threat that Italy will no longer be willing to pay 20-billion euro ($23 billion) annually to the EU if member nations don't take rescued migrants from Italy.

Italy's anti-migrant interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has refused to let 150 migrants off an Italian coast guard ship docked in Catania, Sicily. He insists other EU members take the asylum-seekers, most of them from Eritrea. The coast guard rescued them in the Mediterranean on Aug. 16.

Moavero Milanesi says beyond the migrants' fate, migration issues can't be a matter of "the physical geography of our continent."

Spain is denying that its decision to send back to Morocco 116 migrants who entered the country illegally amounts to a change in migration policy.

Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said Friday that Spain activated a 1992 agreement with Rabat to expel the migrants.

She says they used "unacceptable" violence when they stormed fences separating Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on Wednesday. Seven policemen were hurt.

Calvo says Spain will keep receiving migrants rescued in the Mediterranean in a "safe and humanitarian" manner.

Sub-Saharan Africans living illegally in Morocco often try to enter Europe by scaling fences surrounding Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's other North African enclave.

Migrant arrivals in Spain have spiked in recent months, placing strain on public services and putting political pressure on the government.

An Italian lawmaker says rescued migrants stuck aboard an Italian coast guard ship are starting a hunger strike.

Opposition Sen. Davide Faraone, who visited the migrants a day earlier on the Diciotti, tweeted on Friday that Catania port officials told him "there's tension" on the ship, and that migrants have stopped eating out of frustration the Italian government won't let them disembark.

Rescued on Aug. 16 in the Mediterranean Sea, 150 migrants are still on the ship after minors and the sick were allowed off in recent days.

Sky TG24 TV said some women aboard ate lunch Friday but the men refused the meal.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini says other European Union nations must pledge to take the migrants before they can disembark.

Most of the migrants are Eritrean.

The European Union is warning Italy to refrain from issuing threats in the continuing migrant crisis after a prominent government member said that Rome could withhold part of its EU payments.

EU Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein said Friday that "the European Union is a community of rules and it operates on the basis of rules, not threats."

Italy has barred from port some ships with migrants picked up at sea over what it says is sluggishness of other countries to help out. One already-docked ship carrying about 150 is now banned from disembarking adults. Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio said the government could curtail its EU contributions if no solution is found.

Winterstein called on "all parties involved to work constructively together to find a swift solution."</s>Concern is mounting about the medical and psychological health of 150 migrants who were spending their 10th day stuck aboard a coast guard ship while the Italian government insists that other European Union nations must take them.

The health minister requested an on-board visit by doctors to the Diciotti coast guard ship, which is docked in Catania, Sicily.

After it was done, authorities decided that 16 migrants should be taken off the ship for medical reasons, two of them for suspected cases of tuberculosis and three for pneumonia, Red Cross officials said.

The standoff prompted an impassioned appeal by the UN refugee agency’s chief, asking Italy to let them disembark and urging EU countries to take responsibility for the asylumseekers, most of them young men fleeing harsh conditions in Eritrea.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, speaking in Geneva, said it is time to end a “race to the bottom on who can take the least responsibility for people rescued at sea”.

He urged European countries “to do the right thing and offer places of asylum for people rescued from the Mediterranean Sea in their time of need”.

But Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been adamant that the migrants be kept on the ship until fellow EU nations pledge to take them.

Mr Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, has said he 9s ready to defend his reasons for ordering the migrants kept aboard.

“If someone wants to investigate me, investigate me,” Salvini tweeted.</s>Migrants wait to disembark from Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti in the port of Catania, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. A delegation from Italy’s guarantor of personal rights office has boarded a coast guard ship in a Sicilian port with 150 African migrants stuck aboard for days, after the Italian interior minister vowed none will set foot on Italian soil. (Orietta Scardino/ANSA via AP) less

Migrants wait to disembark from Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti in the port of Catania, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. A delegation from Italy’s guarantor of personal rights office has boarded a coast ... more

Migrants wait to disembark from Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti in the port of Catania, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. A delegation from Italy’s guarantor of personal rights office has boarded a coast guard ship in a Sicilian port with 150 African migrants stuck aboard for days, after the Italian interior minister vowed none will set foot on Italian soil. (Orietta Scardino/ANSA via AP) less

Migrants wait to disembark from Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti in the port of Catania, Italy, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. A delegation from Italy’s guarantor of personal rights office has boarded a coast ... more

The Latest: Italy official: migrants kept on ship unjustly

ROME (AP) — The Latest on Europe's migrant crisis (all times local):

A delegation from Italy's guarantor of personal rights has visited 150 migrants held on an Italian coast guard vessel for days, concluding they are being unjustly prevented from disembarking at a Sicilian port.

Delegation chief Daniela de Robert told Sky TG24 TV after three hours aboard the Diciotti that the migrants come from countries that should make them "easily" eligible to request refugee status. She said nearly 90 percent are from Eritrea, while the others are from Syria, Sudan and Somalia.

The Italian news agency ANSA quoted her as saying that "we found what we thought we'd find — persons deprived of freedom without a measure from judicial authorities." She called that a rights violation.

Anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has vowed not to let the migrants disembark.
Representatives from 12 European Union countries do not reach an agreement on Italy's request to take in the 150 migrants still remaining on the Diciotti-class vessel in Catania, Sicily, after their rescue by the Italian Coast Guard nine days ago.