31/07/2019 (Agence Europe) – AFP has reported that, on Wednesday 31 July, Germany, France, Portugal, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Italian Church reached an agreement to take responsibility for 131 migrants held on board the Gregoretti, the Italian coast guard ship, which will be able to dock in Sicily. This action was welcomed by Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Commissioner for Migration, who highlighted on Twitter the coordination work undertaken by the Commission and pointed out how necessary temporary landing mechanisms are. The 131 people had been held on board the ship since Saturday evening. Matteo Salvini, the Italian Minister of the Interior, refused to let them land unless there was a distribution plan agreed with the EU, but 16 minors had been allowed to disembark on 30 July. After having departed from Libya, the migrants were rescued by Italian coast guard patrol boats and transferred to the Gregoretti. (SP)