Forty one shipwrecked migrants were rescued by a charity vessel and brought into port at a Mediterranean island.
Mediterranea’s Italian-flagged Alex arrived in Lampedusa in defiance of far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
It is the second boat to do so and the migrants were met by a strong police presence.
Shipwrecked: Migrants onboard the Mediterranea were brought to port in Lampedusa where police were waiting for them
Everyone was forced to remain onboard after a two-day wait with the rescued migrants and asylum-seekers on the small sailboat’s deck.
‘In view of the intolerable hygiene conditions aboard, the Alex has declared a state of emergency and is sailing towards Lampedusa, the only possible safe port for landing.’ Mediterranea said in a tweet earlier.
Italian populist Salvini last month decreed fines of up to 50,000 euros ($57,000) would be faced by the captain, owner and operator of a vessel ‘entering Italian territorial waters without authorisation’.

Two-day wait: Migrants faced ‘intolerable hygiene conditions’ aboard the charity vessel
Salvini branded the charity workers onboard Alex as ‘jackals… will they go unpunished also?’
A rescue ship belonging to German aid group Sea-Watch was also seized last week by authorities on Lampedusa.
The action was taken after it forced its way into port with dozens of rescued migrants onboard leading its captain, Carola Rackete, to be arrested.
But an Italian judge intervened in the row this week and demanded for her to be freed in the wake of her life-saving actions in the face of Salvini’s stance.

Defiant gesture: The Alex docked at Lampedusa port in defiance of the ban on such vessels entering Italian waters

Taking on authority: Crew members on the rescue boat The Alex speak to authorities in a bid to help the migrants head to shore

Police presence: Security has been stepped up after another migrant ship sailed into Italian waters and forced its way into the port
Two probes on charges of helping people smugglers and resisting the authorities are still taking place.
Meanwhile, a third rescue ship from German charity Sea-Eye’s vessel Alan Kurdi, carrying 65 shipwrecked migrants rescued off Libya on Saturday also arrived.
It remained in international waters off the Mediterranean island.
‘We are waiting in international waters off the island of Lampedusa,’ Sea-Eye tweeted from the Alan Kurdi.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, in response, tweeted Germany was ready to take in some of those rescued ‘as part of a European-solidarity solution.’
Crew onboard Sea-Eye said 64 men and one woman were rescued from an overloaded blue dinghy lacking sufficient drinking water and made clear there was no satellite phone or navigation aid on board.

Desperate for help: The charity vessel is not the only one carrying migrants waiting to board the island
Salvini accused NGO rescue vessels of helping smugglers and has said Alex should sail for the Maltese capital Valetta after 13 ‘vulnerable’ people were on Friday taken to Lampedusa, leaving 41 on board.
Malta also told Alex to go to Valletta to disembark the migrants, but the crew on the Mediterranea made clear the journey would be too much and underlined their fears the boat would be seized if it did.
‘In these conditions it is impossible to face 15 hours of sailing. We are waiting for Italian or Maltese naval arrangements to take these people on board,’ Mediterranea’s Alessandra Sciurba said on Twitter.
She said that while Italy had taken families and pregnant women from the small vessel, ‘all non-accompanied minors remain on board, including an 11-year-old.’
Mediterranea consists mainly of left-wing activists, which Salvini views as an avowed enemy and his Lega party has soared in popularity due to its tough stance against migrant rescue ships.

Rising tide: Nearly 200 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea over the course of the last week
A poll published in Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper on Saturday said 59 percent of Italians approved of Salvini’s closing ports NGO vessels.
Salvini on Saturday repeated his call for reform of the European Union’s Dublin rules, which stipulate that asylum requests be handled by the country where they first arrive.
But dozens of migrants and asylum-seekers continue to arrive in Italy and interior ministry figures revealed 191 had arrived by sea over the last week.