A boat carrying around 40 African migrants has been stranded off Tunisia’s coast without aid for more than a week after authorities refused to let it disembark there, the Red Crescent said on Monday, in what appeared to be a reaction to Europeans refusal to welcome immigrant boats. This is the first time Tunisia has refused to receive a rescue ship for migrants. Earlier, the Italian government has closed its ports to charity ships operating in the Mediterranean, saying the European Union must share the burden of accepting the hundreds of migrants who are plucked from waters each month, mostly off the Libyan coast. An official of the Tunisian Red Crescent, Monji Slim, said the authorities had argued that Malta or Italy should accept the migrants. The Tunisian interior ministry declined to comment. Slim told Reuters the boat was stuck 12 miles off the coast, adding that African migrants at sea are in a “bad condition after the vessel’s captain refused to receive aid to pressure the Tunisian authorities to receive them, but no solution has been reached after 11 days at sea.” Meanwhile, Italy will allow migrant rescue ships to dock until the EU reaches a deal to distribute new arrivals. Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi said Italy would continue to accept vessels for five weeks while the EU renegotiated its existing policy. Speaking on Monday after talks with his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, Milanesi said Italys ports would remain open until a solution was reached to prevent "all rescued people from landing in one country". “During this time, we ensure that ships with rescued people can dock in Italy,” he told reporters, confirming the “will of our government” to hammer out “common positions with our EU and NATO partners”. Maas said that Germany understood Italys feeling that "they have been left alone" to deal with migrant arrivals. “At the same time, we expect all EU states to uphold existing agreements. Sea rescues are one of those areas of agreement,” Maas said, adding he was pleased to see “a shared desire for solutions”. If countries of the Mediterranean are asking for European solidarity then they “have an ally in Germany” asserted the German Minister. Maas indicated that Germany is prepared to “assume its responsibility” in negotiations to reform the European military operation Sophia commanded by Italy and launched in June 2015 following a series of deadly shipwrecks with migrants.