Supplies sent to migrants on ship; some allowed off

ROME — Another day’s worth of food and beverages was sent Sunday to a pair of military ships off Sicily, as Italy waited for more European nations to pledge to take a share of the hundreds of migrants on board before allowing the asylum-seekers to step onto Italian soil.

Germany, Spain and Portugal each agreed to accept 50 of the migrants, following similar offers by fellow European Union members France and Malta on Saturday, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said. But the Czech Republic rebuffed the appeal, calling the distribution plan a “road to hell.”

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has vowed to prohibit further disembarking in Italy of migrants who were rescued while crossing the Mediterranean Sea unless other EU countries share the burden.

Salvini, who leads the right-wing League party in Italy’s populist coalition government, told reporters Sunday the “aim was for brotherly redistribution” of the 450 rescued passengers on the two military ships.

Finding takers for all of the asylum-seekers on the military ships waiting off Sicily could be a long process.

Baby food, milk and juice were among the provisions delivered Sunday so people aboard will have necessities for 24 hours.

By Sunday evening, roughly 70 passengers had been taken or were about to be taken off the ships and brought ashore in Pozzallo, Italian media said. They included people suffering from dehydration, pregnant women and some babies.

Among the evacuated was a woman weighing 77 pounds after months in Libya.

Many of the rescued passengers are from Eritrea. The Eritrean husband of a pregnant woman who was experiencing abdominal pain was one of the few men allowed off, Italian state TV said.