• Alan Kurdi rescues 150 people off Libya. The NGO: "Italy denies a port"
  • Migrants: 26 landed in Lampedusa, now they will have to remain in quarantine

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08 April 2020 Italy closes ports for NGO ships due to the coronavirus epidemic. Following the Coronavirus emergency, the Italian ports "do not ensure the necessary requirements for the classification and definition of 'Place of safety' under the provisions of the Hamburg Convention on Maritime Rescue" for the relief carried out from ships with foreign flags outside the Italian sar area. This is what the draft of a decree signed by 4 ministers - Transport, Foreign, Interior and Health - which aims to avoid the arrival of foreign rescue ships with migrants. The decree is valid for "the entire period of the emergency".

The mayor of Pozzallo says no to landing from Alan Kurdi
The decree arrives when the ship of the NGO Alan Kurdi, with 150 migrants on board, is waiting off the coast of Lampedusa for the assignment of a port of landing. "Although we are a host city and we have demonstrated this on several occasions in the past but this time we cannot accept a landing in this moment of medical emergency because the health of my community comes first". The mayor of Pozzallo, Roberto Ammatuna, says it on the possibility that the ship "Alan Kurdi" of the NGO "Sea Eye" with 145 migrants on board that is located in the Mediterranean sea and is waiting for a safe harbor, may be authorized to dock in Pozzallo. The mayor of Pozzallo who is also an emergency doctor calls for a procedure that codifies the landings. "Think about swabbing the migrants directly on the ship before accepting the landing. It is also surprising that there is no talk not even distributing the same migrants to other port areas. Without guarantees we will not allow any disembarkation, "he says.

UNHCR in government, "guarantee asylum applications"
UNHCR calls on the Italian government to "guarantee asylum requests" for migrants fleeing wars. Carlotta Sami, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for Southern Europe, told AGI by answering a question on the draft decree that defines Italian ports as "unsafe" in the event of the landing of migrants from ships of ong. "Any restrictions - he explains - must still ensure that people who flee wars have access to the possibility of applying for an asylum application". "Health measures - he adds - are understandable", but these "cannot have serious consequences for people fleeing wars" and "prevent asylum applications from being made". "People continue to flee the war in Libya, which the coronavirus epidemic has not stopped," recalls Sami, who underlines how today "the capacity of à Mediterranean is reduced, and the Alan Kurdi is" the only "ship NGOs in the area ". Furthermore, "favorable weather conditions" push us to cross the sea. Does not closing ports actually prevent the possibility of asylum applications? "Of course, indeed," replied the UNHCR spokesperson.

Two landings in Lampedusa protests for new arrivals
"About sixty Lampedusans, including fishermen, this morning, took to the streets and protested in front of the Municipality of Lampedusa against the mayor Salvatore Martello for the arrival of other migrants." We are in quarantine and they are walking. Nobody should come to this island, nobody, "shouted the exasperated Lampedusans. The protest was staged because yesterday of the 46 migrants who landed on Monday, and placed by order of the mayor in quarantine, managed to get away from the hotspot and they are they were surprised after they had managed to get to the central via Roma. The Lampedusans are afraid of the infection by Coronavirus and are above all angry because they respect the decrees and ordinances of the Prime Minister and of the Region and migrants "go for a walk". Totò Martello has given reason to the fellow citizens and is trying to understand what happened to the hotspot. This morning the boat with about 67 people on board who yesterday asked for help from Alarm Phone landed in Lampedusa. 50 other immigrants subsequently landed on the island On the Favarolo pier, where the new arrivals were also brought, there were almost 120 people this morning.