ITALY’S far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is refusing to let a ship with more than 600 rescued migrants to dock after pledging to “stop the filthy business of illegal immigration.”

The boat, which contains at least seven pregnant women and 123 unaccompanied children among its 629 passengers, remained stranded in the Mediterranean today after the government turned it away yesterday.

But mayors across southern Italy said they would defy the government and open their ports to the Aquarius — a rescue ship operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and SOS Mediterranee.