Some 47 migrants who have been stranded on a charity rescue ship for more than 10 days, amid an EU-wide row over their final destination, will finally be allowed to disembark, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday.

The Sea-Watch 3, a Dutch-registered vessel run by the German non-governmental organization (NGO) Sea-Watch, rescued the migrants north of the Libyan port of Zuwarah on January 19, and has been anchored near Syracuse, on the eastern coast of Sicily, since Friday.

“I can reveal to you that disembarkation procedures will begin in a few hours,” as a burden-sharing deal has been reached with at least six other European Union states, Conte said in a press conference in Milan.

As well as Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Romania, Malta and Luxembourg agreed to take in the migrants.

“I don’t know if some other country” will join the group in the coming hours, the Italian premier said.

“The hostage situation seems to be over! After 10 days of loitering at sea, finally our guests might reach a safe haven. #EUrope should be ashamed,” Sea-Watch said in a statement.

“The European Commission should not have the nerve to praise itself for a solution,” Sea-Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer told dpa. “Human rights must become inalienable again; it can not be that the granting of fundamental human rights depends on EU negotiations.”

The redistribution across the EU of migrants who arrive in Italy has been a bone of contention since June when a new populist government took office in Rome and said it would no longer take in people rescued at sea by NGOs.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League, claims a hard line on migration is needed to stop unauthorized migrant departures from Libya, and points to a sharp reduction in landings as proof that his strategy is working.

He did not immediately comment on the resolution of the Sea-Watch case.

The European Commission played a brokering role in the affair, as it did in previous spats concerning migrant rescue boats. Its Vice-President Frans Timmermans said the EU needed to find a way to avoid future migration-related disputes.

“We cannot just have a piecemeal approach,” he said.

“This doesn’t just stop at better border controls or taking people back to their places of origin [if they don’t get asylum] … It also needs to include a clear expression of European solidarity at the European level.”

Sea-Watch had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, but on Tuesday the court stopped short of ordering Italy to let the migrants off the boat, as the NGO had asked, and only said Italy had to provide them with basic supplies, medical care and legal assistance.