A crew member stands on the deck of the Sea-Eye rescue ship named after Alan Kurdi | Jaime Reina/AFP via Getty Images Germany and Italy at odds in new rescue boat stand-off Two vessels carrying more than 100 people rescued at sea were barred from entering Italian waters.

Germany has agreed to take in "some" of more than 100 people on board two rescue vessels near the Italian island of Lampedusa amid renewed tensions with Italy over who should be responsible for migrants rescued at sea.

The "Alan Kurdi," a vessel operated by German NGO Sea-Eye carrying 65 migrants, and the "Alex," a boat with 54 rescued migrants on board, were barred from entering Italian territorial waters on Friday.

On Saturday afternoon, the Alex, which belongs to the Italian NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, decided to ignore the Italian government's decree and set sail for Lampedusa after having declared "a state of emergency" on board, the NGO tweeted. It was offered safe harbor in Malta but was unable to make the journey without putting its passengers in danger, it said.

The decision triggered an angry reply from Italy's interior minister, the far-right leader Matteo Salvini, who accused the crew of being "accomplices of human traffickers" and said "the authorities are ready to intervene."

The Alan Kurdi, forbidden from docking in Lampedusa, decided late Saturday to set sail for Malta, Sea-Eye tweeted. "We can't wait for there to be an emergency situation on board," it said, calling on German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to take in some of the migrants it plans to discharge in Malta.

The case of the two vessels has inflamed tensions between Italy and Germany over how to fairly share the burden of accepting migrants rescued by NGO vessels at sea.

For many vessels conducting search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean, Italy is the closest safe port. But Salvini, in June 2018, declared Italian ports closed to NGO ships, which he claims are colluding with smugglers, and urged other European governments to take responsibility.

On Friday night, Salvini wrote a letter to his German counterpart Horst Seehofer, saying Italy "does not intend to continue to be the only 'hotspot in Europe'" that receives migrants, according to dpa. The migrants on board the Alan Kurdi are Germany's responsibility, according to Salvini, because the ship sails under a German flag, a claim Berlin rejects.

Seehofer issued a statement Saturday morning in which he said Germany was ready to take in "some of those rescued" from both vessels on the condition that European states step up and do the same as part of a "European solution."

The stand-off comes several days after Italian authorities released German captain Carola Rackete, who was arrested last week for docking a ship carrying 40 migrants in the port of Lampedusa without permission.

Several thousand people took to the streets in cities across Germany on Saturday to protest the criminalization of sea rescues, with large demonstrations in Hamburg, Berlin and Cologne, according to Die Zeit.

This article has been updated.