27 minors to leave Italy migrant ship

ROME: Twenty-seven unaccompanied minors have been authorised to leave a migrant rescue vessel in limbo off Italy, the Spanish charity operating the ship said on Saturday.

"They will be evacuated by coastguard Lampedusa," Proactive Open Arms tweeted after far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini reluctantly authorised the disembarkation.

Salvini wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that he could authorise the "alleged" minors to leave the Open Arms ship despite such a move being "divergent to my orientation".