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Roma, July 31 (IANS/AKI) A total of 116 rescued migrants stuck aboard a coastguard ship for close to a week will come ashore in Sicily after the Italian government struck a deal with five European Union countries and Italy's Catholic Church to relocate them, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said on Wednesday.
"Germany, France, Portugal, Luxembourg, Ireland and several Italian dioceses will take the immigrants on board the Gregoretti," Salvini said in a video posted to Facebook.
The Bruno Gregoretti coastguard ship was given permission to dock but not to disembark in the Sicilian port of Augusta last weekend with 131 people on board. Fifteen of the most vulnerable migrants including pregnant women and children were allowed to disembark amid Italy's latest standoff with the EU over migration policy.
Malta and Italy, the two frontline countries, have been pressuring other EU states to shoulder a fairer share of the Mediterranean migrant burden but have had limited success in getting the bloc to agree a formal mechanism to relocate asylum-seekers.
Salvini, who is also Italy's Deputy {remier, wants the ports where migrants are landed to rotate among various EU countries even if Italy is the closest one for rescue ships to head to.
Over 750,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since 2014 and Salvini has said he wants to deport half a million illegal immigrants.
--IANS/AKI
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