ROME — Catholic bishops, tiny Albania and Ireland agreed to take the 140 migrants blocked aboard an Italian coast guard vessel, Premier Giuseppe Conte said Saturday, announcing the end of 10-day standoff over the asylum-seekers.

But Conte made clear an angry Italy could avenge a perceived lack of overall European Union solidarity by refusing to approve the bloc’s next multiyear budget.

“Italy must take note that the ‘spirit of solidarity’ is struggling to translate into concrete acts,” Conte said in a statement. Conte referred to declarations made at an EU summit in June promising to help Italy and other Mediterranean countries deal with the burden of migrants rescued from human traffickers.

Last week, some in the new populist coalition government threatened to withhold nearly 20 billion euros ($23 billion) in contributions to the EU if member nations didn’t volunteer to take the last group of rescued migrants reaching Italy. Brussels sharply reminded Italy it was legally obliged to pay.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, refused to let the migrants off the coast guard vessel Diciotti until other EU nations pledged to take the asylum-seekers, most of them young men from Eritrea.

Just before Conte announced the drama’s resolution, Salvini told party supporters at a rally in northern Italy that a Sicily-based prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio, had put him under investigation for suspected abduction for refusing to let the migrants disembark.

If the prosecutor “wants to interrogate me or even arrest me because I defend the borders and security of my country, I’m proud of it,” Salvini tweeted.

Frances D’Emilio is an Associated Press writer.</s>ROME (AP) — Catholic bishops, tiny Albania and Ireland agreed to take the 140 migrants blocked aboard an Italian coast guard vessel, Premier Giuseppe Conte said Saturday, announcing the end of 10-day standoff over the asylum-seekers but making clear an angry Italy could avenge a perceived lack of overall European Union solidarity by refusing to approve the bloc's next multi-year budget.

"Italy must take note that the 'spirit of solidarity is struggling to translate into concrete acts," Conte said in a statement. Conte referred to declarations made at an EU summit in late June promising to help Italy and other Mediterranean countries deal with the burden of migrants rescued from human traffickers' unseaworthy boats.

In his role as head of a nearly three-month-old populist coalition government, Conte said Italy under current conditions "doesn't consider it possible to express adhesion to a proposed budget that underpins a policy so incoherent on the social level."

Earlier in the week, some in the government threatened to withhold nearly 20 billion euros ($23 billion) in contributions to the EU if member nations didn't volunteer to take the last group of rescued migrants reaching Italy. Brussels sharply reminded Italy it was legally obliged to pay.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, refused to let the migrants off the coast guard vessel Diciotti until other EU nations pledged to take the asylum-seekers, most of them young men from Eritrea.

Just before Conte announced the drama's resolution, Salvini told party supporters at a rally in northern Italy that a Sicily-based prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio, had put him under investigation for suspected abduction for refusing to let the migrants disembark.

If the prosecutor "wants to interrogate me or even arrest me because I defend the borders and security of my country, I'm proud of it," Salvini tweeted. Many of his supporters blame migrants for crime.

Earlier in the week, the government's rights office for detained persons concluded this week that the migrants were being unjustly held by the government.

Salvini took credit for convincing bishops to take many of the migrants. The bishops agreed to "open up their doors, heart and wallet," he told the rally.

Fifty others of the 190 people rescued at sea on Aug. 16 by the Italian coast guard were previously allowed off the ship, including all the minors and ailing adults.

A few hours before Conte's announcement, Italian Red Cross ambulances waiting at dockside took away six ill men, suspected of having tuberculosis, pneumonia or other infections, and seven of the 11 women who were still aboard.

Authorities had said the women recounted how they had been raped while in Libya for months, awaiting the opportunity to leave in migrant smugglers' boats.

Four other women chose not to leave the ship because their husbands were blocked aboard.

The standoff had prompted an impassioned appeal at the height of the standoff Saturday by the U.N. refugee agency's chief, who asked Italy to let the migrants disembark and urged EU countries to take responsibility for the asylum-seekers.

In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said it's 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."

Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi expressed appreciation for Albania's "sign of great solidarity and friendship," his ministry said.

Albania, which isn't in the European Union, saw thousands of its citizens flee to Italy across the Adriatic Sea aboard dramatically overcrowded rickety ferries and fishing boats in hopes of a better life in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Sicily-based prosecutors took their investigation of the migrant standoff to Rome. Prosecutor Patronaggio left without speaking to reporters after questioning two Interior Ministry officials at the Italian capital's prosecutors' office, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

Prosecutors would have to seek permission from a special panel to question Salvini. As a lawmaker, Salvini also holds immunity from prosecution that could only be lifted by fellow lawmakers.

Italian Red Cross official Stefano Principato in Catania told reporters that Italy's health minister had ordered an inspection of sanitary conditions for the migrants, who have been sleeping on the ship's deck and coping with a baking sun and limited toilet facilities.

Doctors have said many of the migrants on the ship have scabies but "more than a health emergency, it would be better to speak of a psychological emergency," Principato said.

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report

Frances D'Emilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio</s>ROME (AP) — Catholic bishops, tiny Albania and Ireland agreed to take the 140 migrants blocked aboard an Italian coast guard vessel, Premier Giuseppe Conte said Saturday, announcing the end of 10-day standoff over the asylum-seekers but making clear an angry Italy could avenge a perceived lack of overall European Union solidarity by refusing to approve the bloc's next multi-year budget.

"Italy must take note that the 'spirit of solidarity is struggling to translate into concrete acts," Conte said in a statement. Conte referred to declarations made at an EU summit in late June promising to help Italy and other Mediterranean countries deal with the burden of migrants rescued from human traffickers' unseaworthy boats.

In his role as head of a nearly three-month-old populist coalition government, Conte said Italy under current conditions "doesn't consider it possible to express adhesion to a proposed budget that underpins a policy so incoherent on the social level."

Earlier in the week, some in the government threatened to withhold nearly 20 billion euros ($23 billion) in contributions to the EU if member nations didn't volunteer to take the last group of rescued migrants reaching Italy. Brussels sharply reminded Italy it was legally obliged to pay.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, refused to let the migrants off the coast guard vessel Diciotti until other EU nations pledged to take the asylum-seekers, most of them young men from Eritrea.

Just before Conte announced the drama's resolution, Salvini told party supporters at a rally in northern Italy that a Sicily-based prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio, had put him under investigation for suspected abduction for refusing to let the migrants disembark.

If the prosecutor "wants to interrogate me or even arrest me because I defend the borders and security of my country, I'm proud of it," Salvini tweeted. Many of his supporters blame migrants for crime.

Earlier in the week, the government's rights office for detained persons concluded this week that the migrants were being unjustly held by the government.

Salvini took credit for convincing bishops to take many of the migrants. The bishops agreed to "open up their doors, heart and wallet," he told the rally.

Fifty others of the 190 people rescued at sea on Aug. 16 by the Italian coast guard were previously allowed off the ship, including all the minors and ailing adults.

A few hours before Conte's announcement, Italian Red Cross ambulances waiting at dockside took away six ill men, suspected of having tuberculosis, pneumonia or other infections, and seven of the 11 women who were still aboard.

Authorities had said the women recounted how they had been raped while in Libya for months, awaiting the opportunity to leave in migrant smugglers' boats.

Four other women chose not to leave the ship because their husbands were blocked aboard.

The standoff had prompted an impassioned appeal at the height of the standoff Saturday by the U.N. refugee agency's chief, who asked Italy to let the migrants disembark and urged EU countries to take responsibility for the asylum-seekers.

In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said it's 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."

Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi expressed appreciation for Albania's "sign of great solidarity and friendship," his ministry said.

Albania, which isn't in the European Union, saw thousands of its citizens flee to Italy across the Adriatic Sea aboard dramatically overcrowded rickety ferries and fishing boats in hopes of a better life in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Sicily-based prosecutors took their investigation of the migrant standoff to Rome. Prosecutor Patronaggio left without speaking to reporters after questioning two Interior Ministry officials at the Italian capital's prosecutors' office, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

Prosecutors would have to seek permission from a special panel to question Salvini. As a lawmaker, Salvini also holds immunity from prosecution that could only be lifted by fellow lawmakers.

Italian Red Cross official Stefano Principato in Catania told reporters that Italy's health minister had ordered an inspection of sanitary conditions for the migrants, who have been sleeping on the ship's deck and coping with a baking sun and limited toilet facilities.

Doctors have said many of the migrants on the ship have scabies but "more than a health emergency, it would be better to speak of a psychological emergency," Principato said.

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report

Frances D'Emilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio</s>Prosecutors in Sicily on Saturday opened an inquiry into Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for "illegal confinement, illegal arrest and abuse of power", reports said, over his refusal to allow over 100 rescued migrants off a coastguard ship.

At the same time, Salivini suggested that an end to the drama could be in sight telling a political meeting "the migrants on board the Diciotti ship will disembark in the coming hours", adding that they would be taken in by the Italian church "by bishops who are opening their doors, their hearts and their wallets".

Authorities earlier allowed a dozen migrants to leave the Diciotti where they have been stranded for days, as it also hailed Albania for offering to accept some of those on board.

Rome has blocked most of the migrants from stepping off the boat which docked at the port of Catania in Sicily on Monday night, leaving them trapped as Italy pushes other EU nations to take them in.

Their fate has sparked a fresh immigration row between Italy's populist government and the EU, with Rome on Friday threatening to pull some of its funding for the bloc as a "compensatory measure" if it refuses to help.

Prosecutors in Sicily said that they were now investigating Salvini in connection with the migrants' plight. The minister earlier brushed aside reports of a broader inquiry into who was responsible saying late Friday that

officials were following orders issued by "the director -- that is to say me".

Out of a total of 150 people on board, health authorities authorised 17 -- 11 women and six men -- to leave the ship on Saturday. But only 12 disembarked, after several women refused to leave if it meant

being separated from family members still on board, media reported.

Italy's Foreign Ministry praised Albania "for its decision to welcome 20 refugees from the Diciotti, a sign of great solidarity", in a tweet. Albania, which is not an EU member, is the only country so far to offer to

host some of those on board the ship.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) called on EU member states to "urgently" provide places for those stranded on the ship.

"In the meantime, UNHCR urges Italian authorities to allow the immediate disembarkation of those on board," it said.

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.

Under EU rules people must seek asylum in their country of arrival, but Rome has increasingly barred boats from docking at its ports.

A high-level meeting of a dozen EU member states in Brussels on Friday failed to produce an immediate solution for the Diciotti migrants.

"The European Union has decided to turn its back on Italy once again," Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on his Facebook page. "They want the 20 billion euros ($23 billion) paid by Italian citizens? Then let them demonstrate that they deserve it and that they are taking charge of a problem that we can no longer face alone. The borders of Italy are the borders of Europe," he added.

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.

Salvini stopped the majority of the migrants disembarking from the Diciotti after they were rescued on August 15, but he allowed 27 unaccompanied minors off the boat on Wednesday.

Opinion polls suggest that Salvini's stance has boosted his far-right League party's approval rating to around 30 percent -- a more than 10 point jump from its showing in March's election.

It is now level with the Five Star Movement with which it has governed Italy since early June.

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 98,000 in 2017.</s>ROME (AFP) - Prosecutors in Sicily on Saturday (Aug 25) opened an inquiry into Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for "illegal confinement, illegal arrest and abuse of power", reports said, over his refusal to allow over 100 rescued migrants off a coastguard ship.

At the same time, Salivini suggested that an end to the drama could be in sight telling a political meeting "the migrants on board the Diciotti ship will disembark in the coming hours", adding that they would be taken in by the Italian church "by bishops who are opening their doors, their hearts and their wallets".

Authorities earlier allowed a dozen migrants to leave the Diciotti where they have been stranded for days, as it also hailed Albania for offering to accept some of those on board.

Rome has blocked most of the migrants from stepping off the boat which docked at the port of Catania in Sicily last Monday night, leaving them trapped as Italy pushes other EU nations to take them in.

Their fate has sparked a fresh immigration row between Italy's populist government and the EU, with Rome on Friday threatening to pull some of its funding for the bloc as a "compensatory measure" if it refuses to help.

Prosecutors in Sicily said that they were now investigating Salvini in connection with the migrants' plight.

The minister earlier brushed aside reports of a broader inquiry into who was responsible saying late Friday that officials were following orders issued by "the director - that is to say me".

Out of a total of 150 people on board, health authorities authorised 17 - 11 women and six men - to leave the ship on Saturday.

But only 12 disembarked, after several women refused to leave if it meant being separated from family members still on board, media reported.

Italy's Foreign Ministry praised Albania "for its decision to welcome 20 refugees from the Diciotti, a sign of great solidarity", in a tweet.

Albania, which is not an EU member, is the only country so far to offer to host some of those on board the ship.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) called on EU member states to "urgently" provide places for those stranded on the ship.

"In the meantime, UNHCR urges Italian authorities to allow the immediate disembarkation of those on board," it said.

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.

Under EU rules people must seek asylum in their country of arrival, but Rome has increasingly barred boats from docking at its ports.

A high-level meeting of a dozen EU member states in Brussels on Friday failed to produce an immediate solution for the Diciotti migrants.

"The European Union has decided to turn its back on Italy once again," Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on his Facebook page.

"They want the 20 billion euros (S$31.7 billion) paid by Italian citizens? Then let them demonstrate that they deserve it and that they are taking charge of a problem that we can no longer face alone. The borders of Italy are the borders of Europe," he added.

EU figures for 2016 say Italy contributed just under 14 billion euros to the EU budget - less than 1 per cent of its gross national income - while the bloc spent 11.6 billion euros in Italy.

Salvini stopped the majority of the migrants disembarking from the Diciotti after they were rescued on Aug 15, but he allowed 27 unaccompanied minors off the boat on Wednesday.

Opinion polls suggest that Salvini's stance has boosted his far-right League party's approval rating to around 30 per cent - a more than 10 point jump from its showing in March's election.

It is now level with the Five Star Movement with which it has governed Italy since early June.

According to Salvini's own ministry, migrant arrivals are more than 80 per cent down on the same period last year, with just over 19,500 arriving up to Aug 23, compared to 98,000 in 2017.</s>CATANIA, Italy (Reuters) – Thirteen sick migrants on Saturday left the Italian rescue ship docked for five days in a Sicilian port and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said he was working on a “positive solution” for the remaining 137 people on board.

The migrants, mainly from Eritrea, have been stranded in the port of Catania since Monday because the Italian government is refusing to let them off the boat until other European Union states agree to take some of them in. The United Nations called on Saturday for reason from all sides after a meeting of envoys from 10 EU states in Brussels a day earlier failed to break the deadlock.

“Frightened people who may be in need of international protection should not be caught in the maelstrom of politics,” the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement.

It appealed to EU member states to “urgently” offer relocation places to the rescued people, in line with an agreement at an EU summit in June, and in the meantime urged Italy to allow “the immediate disembarkation of those on board.”

The only help from within the bloc came late on Saturday from Ireland whose foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said the government had agreed to accept 20 to 25 migrants.

Ireland’s announcement followed an offer from non-EU member Albania to take in 20 of the migrants.

Italy’s Foreign Ministry called Albania’s offer “a signal of great solidarity and friendship which Italy greatly appreciates.”

Salvini was in discussions with other non-EU countries who might be willing to follow Albania’s example, an Interior Ministry source said earlier on Saturday.

Italy’s anti-establishment government that took office three months ago has refused to back down, despite criticism from rights groups and the opposition.

The migrants that disembarked on Saturday — seven women and six men — were ordered off the boat by doctors after a check-up carried out at around midday.

They finally left the boat one-by-one some six hours later, stepping down a flight of steps to touch dry land for the first time since leaving Libya at least 10 days ago. They were taken by ambulance to Catania’s Garibaldi hospital.

The doctors had recommended all 11 women on board be disembarked, but four refused to leave their partners on board.

More than 650,000 people have reached Italian shores since 2014 and Rome says it will not let any more rescue ships dock unless the migrants are shared out around the EU.</s>Italy has allowed all the migrants stuck on an Italian coast guard ship to disembark, 10 days after they were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea.

Some 137 migrants left the Diciotti early on Sunday, stepping on to the dock at Catania, Sicily, where police photographed them for ID checks, a requirement for asylum seekers.

Italy’s populist government had not let them leave the ship earlier, demanding that other European Union countries take them. Migrants disembark from the ship (Orietta Scardino/ANSA via AP) Only Ireland did, pledging to take 20. Non-EU Albania will take 20, while Italian Catholic bishops said they would care for about 100. On August 16, the Diciotti’s crew rescued 190 migrants, most from Eritrea, from a smuggling boat. The others, including minors and ailing migrants, were allowed off earlier. Italy has threatened economic reprisals against the EU for not helping it enough with migrants.</s>ROME (AP) — Catholic bishops, tiny Albania and Ireland agreed to take the 140 migrants blocked aboard an Italian coast guard vessel, Premier Giuseppe Conte said Saturday, announcing the end of 10-day standoff over the asylum-seekers but making clear an angry Italy could avenge a perceived lack of overall European Union solidarity by refusing to approve the bloc's next multi-year budget.

"Italy must take note that the 'spirit of solidarity is struggling to translate into concrete acts," Conte said in a statement. Conte referred to declarations made at an EU summit in late June promising to help Italy and other Mediterranean countries deal with the burden of migrants rescued from human traffickers' unseaworthy boats.

In his role as head of a nearly three-month-old populist coalition government, Conte said Italy under current conditions "doesn't consider it possible to express adhesion to a proposed budget that underpins a policy so incoherent on the social level."

Earlier in the week, some in the government threatened to withhold nearly 20 billion euros ($23 billion) in contributions to the EU if member nations didn't volunteer to take the last group of rescued migrants reaching Italy. Brussels sharply reminded Italy it was legally obliged to pay.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League party, refused to let the migrants off the coast guard vessel Diciotti until other EU nations pledged to take the asylum-seekers, most of them young men from Eritrea.

Just before Conte announced the drama's resolution, Salvini told party supporters at a rally in northern Italy that a Sicily-based prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio, had put him under investigation for suspected abduction for refusing to let the migrants disembark.

If the prosecutor "wants to interrogate me or even arrest me because I defend the borders and security of my country, I'm proud of it," Salvini tweeted. Many of his supporters blame migrants for crime.

Earlier in the week, the government's rights office for detained persons concluded this week that the migrants were being unjustly held by the government.

Salvini took credit for convincing bishops to take many of the migrants. The bishops agreed to "open up their doors, heart and wallet," he told the rally.

Fifty others of the 190 people rescued at sea on Aug. 16 by the Italian coast guard were previously allowed off the ship, including all the minors and ailing adults.

A few hours before Conte's announcement, Italian Red Cross ambulances waiting at dockside took away six ill men, suspected of having tuberculosis, pneumonia or other infections, and seven of the 11 women who were still aboard.

Authorities had said the women recounted how they had been raped while in Libya for months, awaiting the opportunity to leave in migrant smugglers' boats.

Four other women chose not to leave the ship because their husbands were blocked aboard.

The standoff had prompted an impassioned appeal at the height of the standoff Saturday by the U.N. refugee agency's chief, who asked Italy to let the migrants disembark and urged EU countries to take responsibility for the asylum-seekers.

In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said it's 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."

Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi expressed appreciation for Albania's "sign of great solidarity and friendship," his ministry said.

Albania, which isn't in the European Union, saw thousands of its citizens flee to Italy across the Adriatic Sea aboard dramatically overcrowded rickety ferries and fishing boats in hopes of a better life in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Sicily-based prosecutors took their investigation of the migrant standoff to Rome. Prosecutor Patronaggio left without speaking to reporters after questioning two Interior Ministry officials at the Italian capital's prosecutors' office, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

Prosecutors would have to seek permission from a special panel to question Salvini. As a lawmaker, Salvini also holds immunity from prosecution that could only be lifted by fellow lawmakers.

Italian Red Cross official Stefano Principato in Catania told reporters that Italy's health minister had ordered an inspection of sanitary conditions for the migrants, who have been sleeping on the ship's deck and coping with a baking sun and limited toilet facilities.

Doctors have said many of the migrants on the ship have scabies but "more than a health emergency, it would be better to speak of a psychological emergency," Principato said.

Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report

Frances D'Emilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio</s>ROME -- Ten days after they were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, Italy has allowed all the migrants stuck on an Italian coast guard ship to disembark.

Early Sunday, 137 migrants left the Diciotti, stepping onto the dock at Catania, Sicily, where police photographed them for ID checks, a requirement for asylum-seekers.

Italy's populist government had not let them leave the ship earlier, demanding that other European Union countries take them. Only Ireland did, pledging to take 20. Non-EU Albania will take 20, while Italian Catholic bishops said they would care for about 100.

On Aug. 16, the Diciotti's crew rescued 190 migrants, most from Eritrea, from a smuggling boat. The others, including minors and ailing migrants, were allowed off earlier.

Italy has threatened economic reprisals against the EU for not helping it enough with migrants.</s>The Government will accept up to 25 people from a group of migrants who were stuck on an Italian coast guard ship for 10 days after they were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea.

Some 137 migrants disembarked the Diciotti ship on Sunday ,stepping on to the dock at Catania, Sicily, where police photographed them for ID checks, a requirement for asylum seekers.

Italy’s populist government had not let them leave the ship earlier, demanding that other European Union countries take them.

Ireland was the only EU country to do so, pledging to take between 20 and 25. Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney tweeted that he and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan had “ agreed that Ireland will accept 20-25 migrants from the Diciotti, subject to usual conditions & vetting,”. He wrote that “European solidarity is important” and “ this is the right thing to do”. He said “ work continues with EU partners on more sustainable solutions” .

Non-EU country Albania said it will take 20 migrants, while Italian Catholic bishops said they would care for about 100.

On August 16th, the Diciotti’s crew rescued 190 migrants, most from Eritrea, from a smuggling boat.

The others, including minors and ailing migrants, were allowed off earlier.

Italy has threatened economic reprisals against the EU for not helping it enough with migrants.–PA
Thirteen sick people are taken off the stranded Diciotti vessel in Catania, Italy. Albania offers to take in 20 migrants.