Rescue ship with 104 migrants docks in Sicily

A humanitarian rescue ship with over 100 migrants on board was authorized to dock in Sicily on Wednesday, Italy's Interior Ministry said.

The green light for the ship to dock and disembark was given by Italian authorities on Tuesday, after relocation was agreed with some European Union (EU) partners for the majority of the rescued people.

The actual disembarkation took place on Wednesday morning, after the ship -- Ocean Viking, operated by aid groups SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders -- reached the port of Pozzallo in southeast Sicily.

The operation was assisted by the Italian Red Cross and the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), both of which confirmed on Twitter that they provided first medical and food aid.

The ship had a total of 104 migrants and asylum seekers on board, including 41 minors and two pregnant women, according to a joint statement issued by the aid groups earlier this month.

All of them had been rescued from a rubber dinghy found in distress in the Mediterranean Sea at about 50 miles from the coast of Libya, from where they had departed.

After the rescue mission, the Ocean Viking had to wait some 12 days for the Italian authorities to negotiate with their EU partners the migrants' final destination.

"With regard to the migrants on board of the Ocean Viking, a relocation procedure has just been settled on the base of the pre-deal reached at the meeting in Malta," the Interior Ministry explained in a statement late on Tuesday.

"More specifically, France and Germany will welcome 70 migrants. Therefore, the port of Pozzallo has been selected for disembarkation," it said.

The Malta arrangement referred to by the ministry was a deal struck in Valletta on Sept. 23 by the interior ministers of Malta, Italy, France and Germany, assisted by the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The deal provides for a partial relocation scheme for migrants and asylum seekers headed to Europe and rescued from the Mediterranean Sea.

According to Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese, the deal is based on the principle of rotating the ports of disembarkation on a voluntary basis, and on the automatic distribution of migrants seeking asylum among all countries that join the agreement.

The central Mediterranean migrant route sees Libya as key departure point of migrant boats, and southern EU countries as usual points of arrival. The route has proved to be one of the most dangerous for migrants headed to Europe in search of asylum or work.

As of Oct. 28, 95,030 migrants and asylum seekers reached Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta, and 78,397 of them across the Mediterranean, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

A total of 1,078 people were estimated to be dead or missing on their journey.