Italy calls on Malta to let in migrants

MILAN - Italy's interior minister said on Friday that Malta should allow a Dutch-flagged rescue ship carrying hundreds of migrants rescued from rubber dinghies off the Libyan coast to make port there because the ship is now in Maltese waters.

"We ask humanly and politically that Malta finally opens one of its ports and lets these desperate people disembark" and then seize the ship, Salvini said.

Malta responded that it would "act according to the laws and applicable conventions," without further explanation. International law states that Malta must respond if they are the nearest safe port at rescue or if requested by the ship's captain.