Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday that 47 migrants kept at sea for over a week as Europe squabbled over their fate will disembark "in the coming hours" after a half-dozen countries came forward to take them in.

Conte said Luxembourg had joined Germany, France, Portugal, Romania and Malta, apart from Italy, in agreeing to take some migrants from the Sea-Watch 3 ship operated by a German aid group.

The migrants were rescued Jan. 19 off the coast of Libya and have been off Sicily since Friday, drawing the ire of the U.N. and sparking an emergency appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Italy's populist government has refused to allow humanitarian ships to dock in a bid to dissuade them from conducting rescues and to force other countries to share the burden.

In Brussels, the U.N.'s top refugee official criticized European governments for competing in a race to the bottom to avoid taking in "a few miserable people."

"It's a race between countries not to take people. So it's a negative race. It's an anti-solidarity race that the governments for political reasons are performing," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told reporters.

Grandi said six people died on average every day trying to cross the Mediterranean last year and that the death rate in the perilous sea crossings is on the rise.

He said the fact that "this continent with all its power, money, technology, means, allows people to die in the Mediterranean at the rate of six per day is quite dramatic."

Grandi said more ships are needed in search and rescue areas. The number of NGO boats operating has dropped from 10 to two, he said, as EU governments try to hinder their operations.

EU countries and institutions claim NGO boats are a "pull factor" that encourages people to try to cross the sea in search of sanctuary and better lives in Europe in the knowledge that they might be saved if their often-unseaworthy boats sink.

A new report from the U.N. refugee agency said that while the number of people make sea crossings has dropped, the death rate doubled over a year.

Migrants are increasingly trying to enter Europe from Morocco via Spain and the report said the death toll in that area almost quadrupled from 202 in 2017 to 777 last year.

Conte was to meet with the leaders of Italy's two governing coalition parties, including hard-line Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the League party, upon his return to Rome.

Conte also said an EU trust fund aimed at propping up African economies to stem the flow of migrants isn't large enough. Echoing Conte, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said it's an "absolute necessity" for Europe to boost Africa's economic development.

The Dutch-flagged Sea Watch 3, which is operated by a German humanitarian group, was allowed into Italian waters late last week off the Sicilian port of Syracuse due to deteriorating weather conditions.

Human rights activists and some politicians have denounced Italy's refusal to allow the migrants to land as inhumane.

"The psychological conditions of these people is worsening quickly. They need to get immediate medical attention on land," EU lawmaker Cecile Kyenge told Sky TG24.

Earlier Tuesday, Europe's human rights court denied a request by the head of the Sea Watch group, the Sea Watch 3's captain and one of the migrants to disembark the 47 migrants.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, however requested in its decision that Italy "take all necessary measures as soon as possible" to give the migrants adequate medical care, food, water and supplies. And it said the 15 unaccompanied minors on the boat should receive legal guardianship.

Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli claimed on Twitter that the human rights court had sided with Italy.

"We must guarantee the migrants food, treatment and adequate assistance. And that is what we are doing. But we don't have an obligation to disembark," he said.

In another similar instance, Salvini faces possible charges for failing to allow 177 migrants to disembark at a port in Catania in August.

Prosecutors have declined to press charges for kidnapping and abuse of office, saying Salvini was enacting government policy beyond the scope of the courts. But a judicial review body ruled otherwise, and has asked the Senate, where Salvini has a seat, to allow the case to procced.

The migrants in that case were allowed to disembark after five days.