Italy will suspend EU funding if other countries do not take in migrants

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Thursday that his party will vote to suspend EU funding next year if other countries do not agree to take in migrants who are on the coast guard ship off Sicily.

Three days after the coast guard ship docked in Catania, it still holds 150 adult migrants.

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After hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived at Italian ports in recent years, the country is now demanding that other European Union states accept them.

The European Commission has repeatedly stated this week that it is working on finding an agreement.

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“If there are no results tomorrow at the European Commission meeting regarding the distribution of migrants from the Diciotto ship, the 5 Star Movement and I will not be willing to give 20 billion every year to the EU,” Di Maio stated in a video posted on the social network Facebook.

Luigi Di Maio is the leader of the Italian 5 Star Movement, which is in a government coalition with the far-right League and its leader Matteo Salvini, who has been fiercely opposing immigration since June.

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Di Maio said he agrees with Salvini that migrants should remain on the ship until an agreement is reached within the EU.