The landings in Lampedusa do not stop, without stopping by the day: in the hotspot of the Imbriacola district, despite the transfers arranged by the Viminale with the ships of the Navy, Coast Guard and Guardia di Finanza, there are still over two thousand migrants amassed in hygienic conditions. poor sanitary facilities, compared to a capacity of 350 seats. And precisely to prevent the emergency from prolonging for weeks, the ministry has chartered a ferry that will shuttle, 3 times a week, to transfer migrants.
“We will continue to put our maximum effort into the field” says Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese after meeting the Mayor Filippo Mannino at the Viminale, who thanked together with the Lampedusans “for the commitment and spirit of solidarity shown also in this phase” . The Interior Ministry has also allocated 450 thousand euros for the disposal of extraordinary waste from the hotspot.
A total of 900 migrants will leave the island, 600 of whom will be aboard the ‘Diciotti’ ship of the Coast Guard. Transfers that arrive at the end of a day in which the position taken by the Democratic Party that has not voted on the refinancing of aid to the Libyan Coast Guard must also be recorded. “A fair battle of a few – says Matteo Orfini – which finally becomes for the whole party”.
There were four landings between Tuesday and Wednesday. Syrian, Egyptian and Sudanese citizens managed to land after leaving Zuara in Libya aboard a 9-meter boat. They were intercepted, while they were on the streets of the island, soldiers of the Guardia di Finanza. Shortly before 3, eleven miles from the islet of Lampione, a Coast Guard patrol boat blocked a 5-meter boat, which had sailed from Zarzis in Tunisia, with 17 Tunisian and Moroccan citizens. In the group, also two women. Everyone was taken to the hotspot. The flow continued also during the day: 22 people, including 9 women and 1 minor, fleeing the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali and Sierra Leone, were intercepted by a Frontex vehicle and a patrol boat of the Gdf while they were six miles from the port. Finally, 16 Tunisian citizens were blocked, 21 miles from Lampedusa, by a Coast Guard patrol boat. The small boat, which departed from Sfax, on which they were traveling was adrift. This group was also taken to the reception facility, which for some weeks had ended up at the center of an investigation by the Agrigento Public Prosecutor’s Office currently open as model 45, that is, without suspects or hypotheses of crime.
And if the situation on the island remains critical, even on board NGO ships the picture is worrying. At the moment there are about 1,200 migrants, including many children, on the boats of Sos Mediteranee, Sea Watch and Doctors Without Borders. Msf itself intervened today to rescue 100 people. This is the eighth rescue at sea in the last 48 hours. “On board SeaWatch3, there are 128 minors, 116 of which are unaccompanied – reads instead a tweet published by the German NGO -. Their presence was reported to the Juvenile Court. The conditions of one of them required the medical evacuation. It’s inhumane. Get them to disembark. “
With the emergency of these hours, and the electoral campaign in progress, the tone of the political debate returns to rise. “The hotspot collapsed: almost 2,000 immigrants present on 300 available places! And the landings continue … From 1 January to 26 July 2019, with my work and the Lega’s work at the Ministry of the Interior, 3,589 landed “, writes on twitter the secretary of the League, Matteo Salvini, who will be on the island on August 4. Laura Boldrini, deputy of the Democratic Party, replies to him, according to whom “Lega, in competition with FdI, returns to immigration, goose that lays the golden eggs”. For her part, the president of Forza Italia, Anna Maria Bernini, affirms that “the inertia of the government and Europe are aggravating an emergency” and “an immediate initiative on the part of the executive is necessary”. Controversies are reviving just as 217 Afghan refugees arrive by plane in Rome, thanks to the humanitarian corridors, on a special flight from Pakistan. Together with other arrivals from Iran, last Monday, and those who will arrive in the next few hours, 300 Afghan refugees will be welcomed into our country in these days. A sign that another immigration is possible, if there is the will.
Source: Ansa
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