MILAN • The Italian government’s weekslong standoff with aid groups running rescue ships partially eased Tuesday, as officials allowed all remaining migrants on two rescue ships to access port. But a ship with 234 rescued migrants still at sea appealed to France to offer it a safe port after more than two weeks of silence from Italy.

Italy was allowing migrants it had previously rejected as “not vulnerable” to disembark the Geo Barents, run by Doctors without Borders, in the Sicilian port of Catania. That comes after all 89 migrants aboard a German-run rescue ship were allowed to disembark on the Italian mainland earlier in the day.

Thirty-five migrants rescued at sea on the Humanity 1 ship were deemed by Italy to be not vulnerable and were blocked for days from getting off the boat. That’s despite protests from the aid group and experts who say all people found at sea in distress are entitled to the closest safe port under international law.

Italian private TV La7 reported late Tuesday that those 35 also were being disembarked but there was no immediate confirmation from the charity.

Premier Giorgia Meloni defended Italy’s hard-line stance, saying voters that brought her government to power in September “asked us to defend the Italian borders.”

“Our goal is to defend legality, security and the dignity of every person. For this we need to stop illegal immigration, and avoid new deaths in the sea and fight human trafficking,” she said in a Facebook post.

Doctors without Borders, which operates the Geo Barents, said the disembarkation of the remaining 214 migrants on board was “a great relief after weeks of waiting.”

With its Ocean Viking rescue ship still in open seas 18 days after its first rescue, the European aid group SOS Mediteranee appealed to France for a safe port, saying the situation on the ship has reached “a critical limit.” Italian authorities have ignored repeated requests for a port.

“We are facing very severe consequences, including risks of loss of lives,’’ Xavier Lauth, the group’s director of operations. “Physical and psychological well-being of survivors and crew have been exhausted by over two weeks of blockage at sea. It is now a humanitarian emergency.”

Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, laid the groundwork to close Italian ports to humanitarian rescue ships by drafting measures contending that two aid groups — SOS Humanity and SOS Mediteranee — were violating procedures by not properly coordinating their rescues.

Migrants peak out from the German humanitarian ship Rise Above as they dock at the southern Italian port town of Reggio Calabria on Tuesday. German humanitarian group Mission Lifeline said its ship docked in southern Italy early Tuesday and disembarked the 89 people it had rescued in the central Mediterranean.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS