Crisis in the Mediterranean: A Ship with Rescued Migrants has no Place to Dock

(CNN)A ship carrying more than 600 rescued migrants, including 123 unaccompanied minors and seven pregnant women, remained stranded in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday after Italy's new populist government refused permission for it to dock the day before in a move described by rescuers as unprecedented.

Matteo Salvini, Italy's hardline interior minister and leader of the anti-immigration League party, called on the country to "close the ports" and pledged Sunday to "STOP the filthy business of illegal immigration."

The search-and-rescue ship Aquarius is operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the SOS Méditerranée organization. From Saturday night into Sunday morning, the Aquarius took on 629 people in six separate operations, MSF and SOS said on Twitter.

The boat has been stranded between Malta and the Italian island of Sicily since Sunday, when the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center told Aquarius to hold its current position, according to MSF.

The ship is equipped for only around 550 people, according to Aloys Vimard, project coordinator on the Aquarius. Speaking to Spanish public radio broadcaster RNE Monday, Vimard said that on-board food supplies would last only one more day.

"MSF is concerned that again politics are being placed above people's lives," Vimard told CNN. "The priority must be the importance of the well-being and safety of the people on board."

A number of passengers are in need of medical treatment, MSF tweeted, adding that 15 have serious chemical burns and several others have hypothermia. Dozens of people had spent almost a full day in the water by the time the Aquarius reached them, Laura Garel, communication officer with SOS Méditerranée France, told CNN on Monday.

None of those rescued...