WATCH: Riot police in violent clashes with protesters over migrant ship in South of Italy
CLASHES erupted between riot police and protesters as thousands demonstrated in favour of migrants on the Diciotti ship in Catania, Italy, to be disembarked on Saturday.
Italy: Riot police and protestors clash over migrant ship
Thousands of protesters clashed with riot police in Italy on Saturday as 190 migrants were refused to disembark in the port of Catania, Sicily.
The migrants were rescued from an overcrowded boat off the coast of Lampedusa last week.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini refused to give an authorisation for most of the migrants to disembark the boat until Italy received guarantees from other EU countries they would share the burden of asylum seekers.
Repeated protests tried to pressure the authorities into letting the migrants ashore.
Only some children and others with health problems were allowed to disembark the rescue ship.
Eventually, all migrants were allowed to disembark on Saturday night, ending a five-day dispute between the EU and Mr Salvini.
Migrants are expected to be taken in by the Catholic Church in the alpine town of Pinzolo.
Ireland has also offered to take in some of the passengers, as well as Albania, despite not being a member state of the EU.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has criticised the "hypocrisy" at the centre of the European Union after crisis talks between the two sides failed on Friday.
Italy is forced to take stock and acknowledge that Europe today has lost a good opportunity
Senior officials from 12 member states met on Friday in Brussels to try and thrash out a deal over the migrant boat Diciotti, which the Italian government refuses to accept.
However, the emergency meeting in Brussels ended without any agreement, according to the European Commission (EC).
Italian officials have demanded that its EU partners agree to accept the migrants, with deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio even threatening to withhold budget contributions to the EU.
This has triggered an escalating spat, with one European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein claiming that "threats in Europe do not lead anywhere".
Mr Winterstein said he did not "want to go into hypothetical scenarios" on what might happen if Italy doesn't pay its £18bn contribution.
Italy: EU diplomats fail to resolve migrant boat impasse
In response, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte lashed out at his country's European partners, accusing them of "hypocrisy".
The Italian leader warned that this spat could spread into how Italy handles other EU issues.
He wrote on Facebook: "Italy is forced to take stock and acknowledge that Europe today has lost a good opportunity.
"At the urgently convened meeting of the European Commission, which has just ended, no follow-up was given to the conclusions of the last European Council at the end of June.
"Once again we see a discrepancy, which mutates into hypocrisy, between words and deeds."