Share

28 July 2020The Sicilian coasts and reception centers appear to be the thermometers of a situation that is difficult to contain. So in the evening, the Minister of the Interior, Luciana Lamorgese, tests that the control of the reception facilities will be strengthened: "Shortly - announces the owner of the Interior Ministry - military personnel from the 'Safe Roads' operation will be sent. 

With boats or help from Italian patrol boats, hundreds arrived in Lampedusa. And the island's hotspot, with a capacity of 95 seats, is to accommodate 726 people as the escapes from the centers continue. In 48 hours 184 people fled from the Cara di Pian del lago, in Caltanissetta, and a hundred from the Porto Empedocle facility. Also in this case Lamorgese throws water on the fire: "Most of them have been traced". Above all, "from a health point of view, the situation is under control", reiterates Minister Lamorgese: "All serological tests have been negative and so the swabs carried out so far on migrants, both in Porto Empedocle and Lampedusa". 

The heart of the problem is naturally in North Africa, the port of departure for the Italian coast. The owner of the Interior Ministry flew to Tunis where she informed the President of the Republic, Kais Said, of the "serious problems" caused to Italy by the "uncontrolled flows", inviting him to act to strengthen supervision and prevent departures. Rome, for its part, is ready to support the efforts of the country that is in a serious economic and political crisis, with a resigned government. The Tunisians ask Italy for radar, maintenance of donated patrol boats, training of security forces. Rome is ready to support the country and would like to increase its weekly repatriation quota, but first a regular government will be needed. 

More than a third of the 12,000 migrants who arrived in Italy this year come from Tunisia. Covid, however, further aggravated the conditions of the country, depriving the population of the main source of income: tourism. So many, almost all young, choose the way of escape. A woman who arrived in Lampedusa with sunglasses and a poodle on a leash said it clearly: "I hope to find a job and freedom because in Tunisia it is full of prisons". There is no shortage of tragedies: a man drowned after the boat he was traveling on capsized a few miles from Zarzis. 

In the meantime, the Lampedusa reception center has returned to accommodate 650 migrants, well beyond the capacity of 95 places: so during the telephone conversation with the president of the Sicilian junta Nello Musumeci, the minister guaranteed that "in Lampedusa and Porto Empedocle , the transfers of migrants to other structures have been intensified and the displacement of about 520 migrants "awaiting a large quarantine ship which will be operational" in the coming days "in Sicily following a new outcome will be completed by today call, after the previous three races had gone deserted.

The opposition attacks. "Landings tripled compared to last year, this government puts Italy in danger", says Matteo Salvini (Lega) and wonders "where the relocations to the countries of the European Union have ended." Stop landings immediately ", presses Giorgia Meloni (Fdi). "We cannot afford laxity and imprudence", observes Mariastella Gelmini (Fi).