More than 4,000 migrants They arrived on Italian shores this weekend, with the island of Lampedusa as the main destination for boats, mostly from Tunisia, which have saturated the reception capacity of some of its ports.
Italian Coast Guard found the bodies of four people after two small boats sank on Saturday in waters near the island of Malta, where they had already located seven other bodies, local media reported.
Italy and Malta saw as many ships traveling in precarious condition across the central Mediterranean it multipliedwhile Tunisia claims to have blocked the departure of over 70 boats in the midst of a wave that hasn’t stopped for weeks and which has caused at least thirty deaths on the Tunisian coasts.
Only on the island of Lampedusa there are more than 2,400 people in a reception center with a capacity of 400 people, after the successive landings of small boats, boats and fishing boats that have arrived in the last 48 hours, reported public television Rai.
transfers
About 200 migrants are transferred to Sicily, while another ship departed with 600 passengers directed to the Calabria region, in the south of the Italian peninsula.
“Lampedusa continues to do what it has been doing for 30 years, with great effort but also with great humility, which is to save lives human rights and give dignity to all of Europe which continues to watch helplessly,” said the mayor of Lampedusa, Filippo Mannino, in statements on Italian television.
On the mainland, in the Calabria region (south), another 550 migrants arrived on Friday afternoonmost of whom landed in Crotone, the town where 91 people died a month ago following a shipwreck.
The ship of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Geo Barents, arrived this afternoon at the port of Bari (south) after having rescued 190 migrants, and another ship, the Life Support of the NGO Emergency, helped 161 people in three several rescues. the day yesterday.
The ship “Ocean Viking”, belonging to the NGO SOS Mediterranee, also denounced it had to stop its operations after being threatened with fire in the air by the Libyan coastguard in international waters.
mass arrival
Another humanitarian ship, the “Louise Michel”, financed by the British artist Banksy, reported this this Sunday remains in custody by the Italian authorities on the island of Lampedusa without having received a “written justification”.
The ship took part on Saturday in the rescue of about 300 migrants traveling aboard seven boats which were also assisted by the Guardia di Finanza, in an operation that would have violated the new immigration decree of the Italian governmentbecause it prevents that relief vessels perform more than one salvage before requesting a port assignment.
Given the situation, the Italian Foreign Minister and Vice-President, Antonio Tajani, declared during a speech at a political school in Milan: “We often face an emergency alone, but alone we are not able to face a situation like that current” .
So far this year they have already landed more than 25,000 immigrants on the Italian coasts, more than triple the 6,500 in the same period of 2022, according to official data.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.