ROME - The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially requested that the EU intervenes with the rescued persons at sea dispute, government officials said.

 Another NGO vessel, the Italian Diciotti, is stuck at sea without a port to dock in this time with 177 rescued persons on board. The vessel has been waiting just off the coast of Lampedusa for five days hoping that its passengers will be accepted by EU member states.

 The letter from the Foreign Ministry to the EU reads: “It is the responsibility of the European Commission to resolve the dispute regarding sharing these rescued people between the Member States of the European Union. The Italian government considers it essential for the Commission to take the initiative directly and we wholeheartedly support a European solution."

 The Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, added to this note: “Either Europe seriously decides to help Italy in concrete terms, starting, for example, with the 180 immigrants on board the Diciotti ship, or else we will be forced to do what will once and for all undermine the smugglers' business: return the people rescued at sea to Libyan ports.”

 Michael Farrugia, the Maltese Interior Minister, wrote in a tweet addressed to Salvini and Danilo Toninelli: “The only solution now is to disembark the migrants in Lampedusa or an Italian port. If Italy still wants to treat this case as a rescue, Lampedusa is the nearest secure port.”

 This week, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel organised a phone call to discuss the “European solution" for the migrant crisis, yet still no work from either country in terms of accepting the Diciotti passengers.

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