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by Tiziana Di Giovannandrea 03 May 2020In the island of Lampedusa there have been three landings of migrant boats, within 24 hours.

The last landing concerns a group of 44 North Africans while yesterday there was a double landing: first 67 people arrived on the island after the rescue, about 12 miles from the coast of a damaged boat, by the patrol boats of the Coast Guard and the Guardia di Finanza. The second small boat with 9 Tunisians on board landed directly on the beach independently.

A group of migrants was brought to the Favarolo Pier, where the 67 recovered from the Coast Guard and Yellow Flames patrol boats spent the night. The migrants of the first two landings will leave the island with the liner to be transferred to Porto Empedocle and reach a structure in Ragusa. The 44 migrants arriving the same day should leave in two days.

In the meantime, to spend the night the migrants who have been on the pier of Lampedusa since yesterday, together with a part of the 44 who arrived in the afternoon, were transferred to the "Casa fraternità" managed by the parish priest of the Island Carmelo La Magra. In the past, the structure has often hosted non-EU citizens.

The intervention of the mayor of Lampedusa Salvatore Martello
The mayor Salvatore Martello, following the landings, decided to have a tent installed on the Favarolo pier, declaring: "Since the island's reception center is full and that the ship of line did not arrive due to bad sea conditions, migrants were made to remain in the area of ​​Molo Favaloro. Thanks to the availability of the Fire Brigade, whom I thank for their support, I had Molo Favaloro installed the tent that was at the Polyclinic and which was not used at the moment, to be able to shelter migrants while waiting for the liner to arrive for the transfer tomorrow ". In addition, the mayor asked to place a ship in front of the island for assistance to migrants: "Indispensable for maintaining health and social security conditions on the island and for being able to protect the health of the migrants themselves".

As for the landing of the 44 North Africans , the migrants were on a rubber dinghy and were intercepted in national territorial waters by the Italian patrol boats, taken on board and transported to Lampedusa. The dinghy was previously found in Maltese Sar waters. The Valletta authorities had sent a merchant to the area to check the situation. The boat was sailing therefore the merchant did not intervene. 

The parish priest of Lampedusa Carmelo La Magra, before deciding on the transfer and reception of migrants for the night in the "House fraternity," he commented, "As we are reduced there? I almost did not pay attention, such as garbage bags. Who can to intervene and he is not doing it is guilty. Once again, tonight, as if it were an unexpected event, as if it never happened, about seventy people spent the night 'in quarantine' on the pier. We all continue to say that Lampedusa does not have the suitable structures in this circumstance but nothing changes ".