Portugal thus joins Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Malta in making itself available to receive some of the 364 people on board those ships, "in a gesture of humanitarian solidarity with the migration and human tragedies in the Mediterranean," the country’s Ministry of Internal Administration Affairs said in a statement.

Portugal has taken part in all such processes of receiving refugees, the ministry highlighted, citing rescues made by the ships Open Arms, Lifeline, Aquarius I, Diciotti, Aquarius II, Sea Watch III, Alan Kurdi and other small vessels.

Since 2018 the country has taken in a total of 150 people in this way.

However, the ministry said, "despite the constantly expressed and now reaffirmed readiness [to show] solidarity, the Portuguese Government continues to advocate for an integrated, stable and permanent European solution to meet the migration challenge."

Currently, more than 32,000 people are living in miserable conditions in camps in five places in Greece that have been a focus of migrant arrivals: Lesbos, Samos, Leros, Chios and Kos. The capacity of these camps is supposed to be 6,200.