The Aquarius originally picked up about 630 migrants — including pregnant women and children — from six rubber dinghies in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya.

The landing in Valencia opens a new chapter in a saga that began last Sunday, when Italy’s new populist government followed through on anti-immigration campaign promises by refusing to let the Aquarius dock at an Italian port.

Italy’s interior minister and the leader of the anti-immigrant League, Matteo Salvini, had argued that “an army of fake refugees” had long exploited what he called the country’s lax rules.

That left the ship, which at the time was overburdened with more than 600 migrants, stranded at sea in dangerous conditions.