Humanitarian ship sent to Catania: After verifying first landings

Activists participating in the strike – Not far from the ship, behind the banner Portiaberti, about thirty activists protested under the slogan “Free for all and free for all”, demanding the immediate disembarkation of all evacuees. According to the new decree, vulnerable persons, women and children will be identified during the inspection: only one – according to the arrangement – is required to disembark.

Four NGO ships have been seeking safe harbor for more than a thousand migrants in Catania, off Sicily’s east coast, for days. But they reaffirm the line they have adopted from the Ministry of Interior: “Those who need to can disembark”, but “others must return outside the territorial seas”. The position of Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, underlined from Milan, explains that “Italy must take responsibility for things that present welfare and humanitarian problems”, but “without disparaging that responsibility is responsibility”. of the flag state” and “fail to fulfill its humanitarian obligations, we will never back down”.

The Humanity 1 ship received notification of a government decree on Friday authorizing it to enter the port of Catania for inspection by Italian authorities. Others must leave Italian waters in sufficient time. Meanwhile, talks will begin with European countries such as France that have expressed interest in accepting shares.

But the NGO Sos Humanity said the move was “illegal” because the 179 rescued were “refugees, vulnerable, some of them traumatized: they need medical and psychological treatment”. And it raises the food availability alarm with “only two hot meals to be served for three more days.” Abubakar Soumahoro, deputy of the Chamber of Verdi and the Italian Left in Catania, also denies the government’s position: “In the next few hours I will board the ship Humanity1 – he announces on social media – if the Meloni government suspends human lives in Italian territorial waters for an ideological-identity campaign. Human lives are saved. The election campaign is over. .Government must respect the Constitution”. And his party colleague, Nicola Fratoianni, speaks of “a heartbreaking and cynical game on shipwrecked leather by the owner of Viminale”.

Meanwhile, two ships, not NGOs, carrying a total of 147 migrants and two dead bodies, have arrived at Augusta Harbor in Syracuse. Jean Francois Deniau of the Frontex, which rescued 88 of them, and the oil tanker Zagara, which, in two operations, rescued 59 migrants and recovered two bodies. Another landing at Rosella Ionica, where 81 settlers arrived.