The Italian authorities have allowed the Open Arms rescue vessel to disembark 150 migrants on the Sicily island where they will remain in quarantine.

Open Arms Director Oscar Camps said in a Tweet: "Ten days after having rescued 276 people in international waters in the Mediterranean and reaching a limit situation on board, Italy  authorized the disembarkation of the 150 migrants who will spend the quarantine period on the ship Allegra, which is moored in the Palermo port." 

Between September 8 and 11, the Spanish humanitarian ship rescued almost three hundred migrants who were sailing through the Mediterranean in boats at risk of sinking.

For weeks, the authorities of Malta and Italy did not offer any concrete solution to the humanitarian emergency that the boat was going through.

Over the last two days, as a result of tension and despair, 125 desperate migrants jumped off the Open Arms ship and tried to swim to Palermo.