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A rogue ship captain who rescued tens of refugees and asylum seekers was arrested by the Italian authorities on Saturday when her ship finally docked after more than two weeks at sea.

Carola Rackete, captain of the Sea-Watch 3, had rescued the migrants 17 days prior but was prevented from docking the Dutch-flagged, German humanitarian ship on the small, southern Meditarranean island Lampedusa.

Italy's far-right anti-migrant interior minister, Matteo Salvini, had refused to let the migrants disembark on Lampedusa until other European Union nations agreed to take the asylum seekers in.

After 17 days at sea, the asylum seekers hugged the crew and kissed the dock upon arrival as Rackete docked the rescue vessel in Lampedusa's dock before dawn Saturday, knocking a much smaller motorboat from the border protection force on the way.

The captain docked without having been given disembarkation permission, despite the fact that five countries offered on Friday to take the asylum seekers in. 

Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal had offered to accept the asylum seekers.

Rackete was immediately taken into custody as she disembarked the ship.

Speaking to RAI state radio, Salvini called her actions "incredible", saying that he had ordered the arrest of "an outlaw" who had put the lives of the border police on the motorboat "at risk". 

He said that he had also asked the authorities to sequester the ship "which goes around the Mediterranean breaking laws."

The Sea-Watch 3 had rescued 53 people on an unseaworthy boat launched from Libya on 12 June.

Since then, 13 of the rescued migrants were taken off the humanitarian ship for medical reasons and brought to Italy for treatment, with 40 disembarking on Lampedusa on Saturday.

German humanitarian organisation Sea-Watch defended the captain's actions, as did Italian opposition lawmakers who had gone aboard a few days earlier in a shower of solidarity with the asylum seekers. 

"She enforced the rights of the rescued people to be disembarked to a place of safety," Sea-Watch said in a statement.

Democratic Party lawmaker Graziano Delrio told reporters after disembarking that Italian judicial authorities will ultimately decide if Rackete broke the law. 

He likened her actions to that of a driver of a Red Cross ambulance "which goes through a red light" to speed ailing patients to a hospital.

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Salvini claims that humanitarian rescue vessels essentially aid Libya-based traffickers who launch unseaworthy, flimy dinghies and rickety fishing boats filled to the brim with migrants.