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Monday, July 16, 2018, 18:42
Migrants allowed to disembark in Sicily after sharing plan
By Associated Press
Monday, July 16, 2018, 18:42 By Associated Press

A woman is carried away on a stretcher after disembarking from an Italian Coast Guard ship in the port of Pozzallo, Southern Italy, July 15, 2018. FRANCESCO RUTA / ANSA / AP)

POZZALLO, Sicily — Migrants aboard two border patrol ships have disembarked in a Sicilian port after a half-dozen European countries promised to take some of them in rather than have Italy process their asylum claims alone.

Italy's hard-line, anti-migrant government had kept the two military ships from docking at Pozzallo until other countries had stepped up. Early Monday, the ships came into port and disembarked their passengers, who were seen being screened at dawn.

A paramedic holds a child disembarked from an Italian Coast Guard ship in the port of Pozzallo, Southern Italy, July 15, 2018. (FRANCESCO RUTA / ANSA / AP)

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Many women and children had already come ashore.

On Sunday, Germany, Spain and Portugal each agreed to respectively accept 50 of the migrants, following similar offers by France and Malta.

But not everyone agreed. The Czech Republic rebuffed the appeal and called the distribution plan a "road to hell."

Children disembark from an Italian Coast Guard ship in the port of Pozzallo, Southern Italy, July 15, 2018. (FRANCESCO RUTA / ANSA / AP)

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