Excerpt:
More than 150 migrants disembarked a rescue ship Friday evening in Sicily, the NGO SOS Mediterranee said, days before hardline anti-immigrant League leader Matteo Salvini visits the island as Italy’s new interior minister.
The Aquarius, a rescue ship chartered by the French NGO, rescued 158 people, including nine children, 26 women and 36 unaccompanied minors, the organisation said in a statement.
All were suffering from dehydration or showed signs of maltreatment, it added.
Salvini, who is also joint deputy prime minister in the populist coalition government sworn in on Friday, has ridden a wave of public discontent in recent years, playing on anti-immigrant sentiment as hundreds of thousands of migrants landed in Italy.