coming across the Mediterranean from the Libyan coast.

There are two rescue vessels in the Mediterranean at the moment

with several hundred migrants on board,

including scores of children, who have been seeking a safe

harbour.

But they've been mostly denied by various EU countries.

One of the vessels, the Open Arms,

has been circling the Mediterranean

after it was denied entry into Italian ports.

On Wednesday, an Italian court overturned a government ban.

And the Open Arms is now sailing towards Lampedusa,

where it hopes it will be able to enter into the harbour

and offload the people that it has on board.

However, Matteo Salvini, Italy's hardline interior minister,

is determined to stop the boat docking.

Mr Salvini argues that this is no longer Italy's problem, even

though its ports are often closest

and it has humanitarian obligations to help.

Open Arms, for example, is a Spanish boat.

And he thinks that Spain should take in the migrants.

Spain has so far refused to do so,

pointing out that it has already taken

20,000 migrants across the Mediterranean,

mostly from Morocco, so far this year.

But it now seems ready to accept at least some

of those people who are on board.

At the root of the issue here is the fact

that Europe's asylum system puts an unfair burden

on frontline countries.

The rules require asylum seekers to apply

for asylum in the first country in the EU where they step foot.

That puts an intolerable burden on countries like Greece

and Italy and now Spain.

Previous EU attempts to ensure that there's

a fairer sharing of the burden have

been scuppered by resistance, especially in eastern Europe.

President Emmanuel Macron, earlier this summer,

brought together a number of countries

to try and come up with a system of co-operation and burden

sharing.

But Italy, perhaps betraying Mr Salvini's political motives

here, boycotted the event.

The numbers coming across the central Mediterranean area are

just a fraction of what they were in the 2015 to 2016

migrant crisis when 1.4m made their way across the sea

into Europe.

But it is still a huge problem for the EU,

revealing its political divisions

and the lack of a common asylum system

that allows the bloc to handle the arrival of migrants

without putting their lives at risk.