The EU has hit back at a threat by Italy’s populist government to halt its budget payments to Brussels amid a row over a rescue ship carrying refugees and migrants, as prosecutors from Sicily travel to Rome to question officials, including the far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, about the illegal detention of those onboard.

The investigation, conducted by the prosecutor of Agrigento, was launched against “unknowns”. Sources said Salvini risked coming under investigation because he was responsible for the disembarkation ban. Although prosecutors refused to confirm it officially, sources told the Guardian Salvini would be questioned at some point in the next few days.



Italy is facing a violation of the article 5 of the European convention on human rights. Under its terms, asylum seekers detained for more than 48 hours should be immediately released and should be given the opportunity to apply for a refugee status.

On Friday, the 150 migrants onboard the Diciotti started a hunger strike to protest against Salvini’s decision not to disembark them.

On Thursday, the Italian deputy prime minister threatened to suspend his country’s financial contribution to the EU if Brussels did not intervene and redistribute the 150 people onboard the coastguard ship Ubaldo Diciotti.

Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the Five Star Movement (M5S), which governs in coalition with the far-right League, said if the EU did not act immediately his party would not be willing to give €20bn each year to the bloc.

The European commission said threats were unhelpful and called on all countries to find a solution to help the people onboard.

“Let’s not engage in finger-pointing,” said a commission spokesman, Alexander Winterstein, when asked about the comments. “Unconstructive comments, let alone threats, are not helpful, and they will not get us any closer to a solution. The European Union is a community of rules and it operates on the basis of rules, not threats. So we would call on all parties involved to find a swift solution for the persons onboard in the spirit of good cooperation.”

The 150 people onboard the vessel have gone on hunger strike, having been prevented from disembarking since Monday.

On Thursday, Di Mario said: “We have had enough, Europe must strike a blow. If tomorrow they do not make a decision about the Diciotti and the redistribution of migrants, M5S and I will suspend the funding.”

Along with Germany, France and the UK, Italy is one of the net payers to the EU budget, which pays for common policies, such as farm payments, infrastructure projects and running the bloc. Italy’s net contribution was €2.3bn in 2017.

The EU budget pays for common policies, such as farm payments, infrastructure projects and running the EU. Member states pay their membership dues monthly, giving Di Maio an imminent opportunity to flex his political muscles. But Italy would jeopardise the payments it receives, which totalled €10bn in 2017 and almost €12bn in 2016, if it makes good on its threat. The country was granted a further €9m in recent days to help it cope with the numbers of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

The commission, which is the guardian of EU law and can take recalcitrant governments to the European court of justice, declined to comment on the consequences if the Italian government refused to pay its dues.



The sharp exchange highlighted the stalemate over which country will help the people onboard the Diciotti. Senior officials from 12 member states were holding emergency talks in Brussels on Friday. The commission said the meeting was not organised to find an immediate solution, but to find a long-term answer to the migration crisis.

“What we are looking for is a structural, sustainable solution, moving away from this ship-by ship troubleshooting,” said Winterstein.

EU leaders agreed in testy, all-night talks in June to create special “controlled centres” to process the asylum claims of people rescued from the Mediterranean. But the agreement appears merely to have papered over divisions and no country has agreed to set up a centre on its soil.

The Diciotti rescued 190 people from an overcrowded boat about 19.5 miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa on 15 August. Thirteen of them were evacuated for emergency medical treatment.

Rome insisted Malta should take in the group because the boat first passed through the country’s search-and-rescue area, but Valletta refused, claiming the people wanted to reach Italy.

On Monday afternoon, Italy’s transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, tweeted: “The Diciotti ship will dock in Catania.”

But shortly afterwards Salvini’s press officer said the interior minister had not given, and would not give authorisation for the 177 refugees and migrants to disembark until he was assured that all would “go elsewhere”.

On Wednesday afternoon, prosecutors in Agrigento visited the ship and questioned the captain and several of its passengers.

“I heard that the prosecutor’s office in Agrigento has opened an investigation,” Salvini said in a video on Facebook Live. “I also heard that the suspects are ‘unknown’ at the moment. But I’m not unknown. My name is Matteo Salvini, I’m the minister of the interior. Come on, try me too, I’m here.”

Salvini authorised on Wednesday night for the 27 unaccompanied minors to disembark after he was visited by magistrates, but madeclear he would not allow the remaining 150 onboard to also do so unless “Europe stepped in”.

“They need assistance as soon a possible,” Giovanna Di Benedetto, a spokeswoman for Save the Children, told the Guardian. “Some of them have suffered several months, if not over a year, of imprisonment in Libya’s detention camps.



“One of them had vision problems and his pupils were dilated, said Nathalie Leiba, a psychologist for Médecins Sans Frontières. “He told me that he was harassed by the Libyans who forced him to call his family to send them money.”