Malta has agreed to allow a charity ship carrying 356 migrants, including more than 100 minors, mainly from Sudan, to dock.
Malta gave the Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking permission to dock after six European Union countries reached an agreement to take in the migrants.
The ship has been anchored in the Mediterranean for two weeks, awaiting port access.
France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania are taking in the migrants. The French news agency reports that no migrants will remain in Malta.
Luca Pigozzi, one of the doctors onboard the rescue vessel, said recently the migrants are traumatized and waiting in the confined space of the ship has only worsened their psychological conditions.
Jay Berger, a Doctors Without Borders project coordinator, said the situation on the Ocean Viking is "shameful" and "inhumane." He said, "leaving migrants on boats for weeks until the crisis becomes an emergency is becoming the new norm."
