Albania has decided to take 20 of the 140 migrants who have been stuck aboard an Italian coastguard ship for days, helping Italy end a growing political crisis over the ship. 

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said on August 25 that the Italian Catholic Church (CEI) will take 100 migrants and Ireland, like Albania, will take 20. 

This will put an end to the 10-day standoff over the migrants on the ship, most of them young men from Eritrea.

"As already announced by [Interior] Minister [Matteo] Salvini, the migrants still aboard the ship Diciotti will land in the next hours. We thank Albania, Ireland and the CEI for having joined the invitation to participate in the redistribution," the Italian government said in a short notice on August 25.

The migrants had been taken on board by the coastguard ship from an overcrowded boat off the coast of the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa on August 15, after they were refused entry to Malta. 

27 minors were allowed to disembark once the ship arrived in Sicily, but Salvini, who leads the anti-migrant League (formerly Northern League) party, initially refused to let any others off the vessel until fellow EU nations pledged to take the asylum-seekers. 

His stance sparked a row between Italy and other EU members, with only Ireland coming forward to offer to take some of the migrants. 

The Italian politician, who has spearheaded Rome’s crackdown on immigration since Conte’s government took office in June, is now under investigation by a Sicilian prosecutor for abuse of office, kidnapping and illegal arrest in connection to the standoff.

Albania decided to take the migrants even though it is not an EU member, but it is an EU candidate country and is waiting to start EU accession talks next year. There remain serious concerns in several EU member states over Albania’s progression towards membership centring on the drug trade and organised crime. 

Tirana’s decision to take in the migrants may lead to a change of stance on Salvini’s part; back in 2014 when Albania was admitted as a candidate country, he

ALBANIA nuovo Stato candidato a entrare nell'UE, alla faccia di storia ed economia... No a un'Europa Supermercato! #Salvini @matteosalvinimi

However, Tirana has previously stressed that there are limits to its support for the EU in the migrant crisis. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said earlier that his country, which is part of the new migrant route across the Western Balkans, will never agree to build asylum centres for refugees if asked to do so by the EU.