EU migrant crisis: Scabies rife on board ship carrying migrants refused entry to Italy

And his description of the dire situation has been confirmed by a psychologist from the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) charity, who also visited the scene.

The Italian coastguard vessel Ubaldo Diciotti picked up 190 people on August 15 from an overcrowded boat roughly 17 nautical miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa. Thirteen people were evacuated for emergency medical treatment, but the rest remained on board.

On Monday night, the ship arrived Catania – but again, none of passengers, which include 29 unaccompanied minors, were permitted ashore, with Mr Salvini steadfast in his refusal, although subsequently 27 minors were eventually allowed to disembark,leaving 150 adults o board.

Mr Pattinaggio, who is investigating the situation on behalf of the city of Agrigento, said: “On board Diciotti there are people sick with scabies and babies: devastating reality.”

Officially the probe has been launched against “unknowns” – but it is clear that if a prosecution were to be launched, Mr Salvini would the one under investigation, given that the responsibility for the landing ban rests with him.

Mr Pattinaggio insisted that his investigation was not politically motivated, adding: “To make an inspection it was technically necessary to open the case for kidnapping and illegal arrest.

“But the technical legal evaluation and the identification of any responsible person is complex and I reserve the right to make any further decision after the investigations I have delegated to the Coast Guard".

“I can not interfere in the operational choices of ministers, also because any criminal appraisals would be the responsibility of the Court of ministers. So, no interference with politics".

He painted a grim picture of the scene on board the ship, saying: ”I have found that they are almost all suffering from scabies.

“A devastating reality, starting from the bad smells that remain on you.

“Someone who had never been in contact with this reality was with me. Very upset.

“He told me that seeing it live changes everything, it is not as we read in the newspapers. He's right."

Mr Pattingagio was also concerned by the large number on young people on the ship.

He explained: “There is also a big problem concerning unaccompanied minors. I found 29, including a little girl.

“This is why I share the concern and appeal launched by the president of the court of minors in Catania on the need to quickly ensure these young people receive adequate care and treatment on the ground”.

Referring to the ship’s arrival at Lampedusa earlier this month, he added: “We have in fact obtained the landing of seven children and six seriously ill adults, including a woman who had an abortion, a migrant with tuberculosis, all of whom had to be taken on patrol boats to be treated in the Lampedusa clinic".

MSF psychologist Nathalie Leiba said: “I went to the harbour in Catania to give psychological support to a group of Eritrean children who had been allowed to leave the Diciotti boat. I found them exhausted. They were confused.

"They understood that there had been a problem which meant that they couldn’t disembark, but they didn’t know why.

“Among them there were some particularly vulnerable cases. They told us their stories, about what they experienced in Libya. There are two particular cases that really left an impression on me.

“There was one boy who couldn’t see well. He kept squinting and adjusting his eyes to the light.

“His pupils were very dilated. He told me he had been held in the dark for a year and was tortured while the Libyan guards forced him to call his family and ask for money.

“The other child had been hurt in the shoulder when he was 15. He had been shot in the shoulder by the men trafficking him. Now, he has pain in his shoulder and his hand is permanently clenched.

“The group were worried for their friends who remained on board the Diciotti. Detaining people on board for a long time in uncertain conditions – children, men, women, people who have had difficult experiences of torture and mistreatment – it harms their psychological well-being.”

Mr Salvini, the right-wing leader of the Lega party, has remained defiant in the face of criticism of his refusal to allow the migrants to disembark unless he receives assurances that they will “go elsewhere".

In a video uploaded to Facebook, he said: “I heard that the prosecutor’s office in Agrigento has opened an investigation.

“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.”

Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio today said his party would vote to suspend funding to the European Union next year unless other states agreed to take in migrants being held on a coastguard ship in Sicily.

He warned: "If tomorrow nothing comes out of a European Commission meeting on redistributing migrants from the Diciotti ship, the 5-Star and I will not be willing to give 20 billion euros each year to the EU."