Migrants about to disembark from the SOS Mediterranee NGO run search-and-rescue ship Ocean Viking in Pozzallo, Sicily Island, southern Italy, 08 August 2021. EPA-EFE/FRANCESCO RUTA Immigration is a hot-button issue in both countries, and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Italy's rightist government's ban on the boat, which had been much closer to Italy than France for days, was "incomprenshible" and "selfish."
The ship was on Thursday sailing by the French island of Corsica, the MarineTraffic tracker app showed.
The question of how to handle immigration in the largely border-free European Union has been a source of tensions for years.
Italy and Spain, where most of the migrants crossing the Mediterranean by sea arrive, say others, including France, must do more to help.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Dominique Vidalon and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Robert Birsel and Tomasz Janowski)
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