• Open Arms, migrants throw themselves into the sea. The Agrigento prosecutor: the situation is explosive

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20 August 2019In broad daylight in Santa Maria di Leuca, in the province of Lecce. Sixty-nine migrants aboard a sailing ship were intercepted by the Coast Guard and the Guardia di Finanza five miles from the coast of the Salento area, crowded with tourists these days, and taken to the port. According to the Adnkronos, two alleged smugglers have been blocked and their position is now being examined by investigators.

Assisted by the police and the Red Cross, migrants, including 16 unaccompanied minors, will now be transferred on a coach to the Otranto 'Don Tonino Bello' reception center. "Here arrivals have never stopped, even though such a high number of migrants had not arrived on our coast for about a year. The last landing took place about twenty days ago - says the councilor for social policies of the municipality of Castrignano del Capo Nina De Maria - when among the smugglers there was also a woman. The newly arrived migrants said they had left Istanbul and had not been drinking for days. We - he underlines - are here to give our contribution reiterate that the port of Leuca remains a port of fraternity, an open port ".

A recurrent mode of arrival on the coasts of Capo di Leuca and to witness it in the port are several sailing ships used for the landing of migrants, some half-sunk, now in a state of total abandonment.