ROME ¨C Italian far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Wednesday resisted increasing pressure to allow 177 migrants who have been held on a coast guard ship in a Sicilian port for two days to disembark.
A public backlash against the seaborne newcomers helped put Salvini and his anti-immigration League party into office in June, alongside the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.
The coast guard¡¯s ship the Diciotti is docked in the port of Catania, but Salvini has said he will not let the migrants ¡ª including 28 minors ¡ª come ashore until other European countries agree to take them in. They were rescued from an overcrowded boat a week ago.
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