France said on Friday that it and other EU nations would take in more than 60 migrants stranded on a German rescue ship off Malta which has refused to let them disembark unless other countries help.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Twitter he had spoken with his Maltese counterpart about the 64 migrants, including 12 women and a baby, picked up off the Libyan coast on April 3.

"I confirmed that France, like Germany and several other European partners, will show solidarity and welcome the refugees aboard the Alan Kurdi, allowing them to disembark at Valletta," Castaner wrote.

The rescue ship, operated by the German charity Sea-Eye, is the latest to be left adrift off the coast of Europe where governments are increasingly trying to push migrants back towards Africa.

Sea-Eye initially tried to land on the Italian island of Lampedusa but Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini - who has turned away several rescue ships in the past year - rejected the migrants, saying that Berlin should take them instead.

He eventually agreed to let two minors and their mothers disembark, but they refused to do so without the children's fathers, who were not allowed off the ship. The ship then headed for Malta.