• Migrants emergency. 140 people in the Mediterranean, the desperate cry from the boat: "we are dying"
  • Over 100 migrants who fled the reception center in Caltanissetta were found in the countryside
  • Migrants, Oim: 95 adrift in the Mediterranean, "risk drowning"
  • Migrants, still landings in Lampedusa. In the night 130 new arrivals
  • Migrants, Lamorgese flies to Tunis: "Concerned about increasing arrivals"

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July 30, 2020While the Senate today votes the request for ex-minister Matteo Salvini's trial on the Open Arms case, due to the favorable sea conditions, the arrivals of refugees and irregular migrants continue unstoppable on the coasts of our country. But "in Lampedusa the situation is unacceptable" said the minister Lamorgese after the talks in Tunis, which now works with the majority on the measure that exceeds the security decrees signed by the leader of the League. And Governor Musumeci also spoke of the "powerless state". 

All this while this morning another 4 landings occurred on the coast of Lampedusa, including two landings directly to the Favarolo pier and the commercial pier, for a total of 47 immigrants.

The Guardia di Finanza first stopped 7 and then 9 Tunisians on the mainland. Offshore, a patrol boat of the Yellow Flames intercepted two small boats: one with 10 Tunisians and the other with 21 migrants, including 4 minors and 5 women, one of whom is Ukrainian. All of them were taken to the Imbriacola district hotspot to be identified. 

But the Imbricola hotspot is in emergency, in recent days there were over 650 people waiting for checks, well beyond the expected limit of sixty. The transfers that continue with the aim of emptying it have therefore started, trying to guarantee that the anticovid security and sanitation measures are respected.

A military ship will transfer 160 migrants from Lampedusa to Pozzallo today. The migrants will undergo rapid tests to detect the possible presence of Covid 19. After completing the procedure, they will be taken by coach to Palermo. The 42 Tunisians who landed independently
in Caucana yesterday in Ragusano will find hospitality in a structure in Giarre. The 118 arrived on the ship of the Guardia di Finanza 'Denaro "late yesterday evening were instead transferred to the Don Pistro center in the Cifali district, Ragusa.

Transfers are also made from the tensile structure of Porto Empedocle (Agrigento) to reception centers in all over Italy. 410 migrants transferred from the Lampedusa hotspot yesterday thanks also to the Guardia di Finanza and the Coast Guard. The transfers of 250 migrants will take place after the swabs carried out to check if there are positive people among them at Covid 19. Yesterday in Lampedusa 50 swabs were carried out on the island.

Another 50 migrants left on board a patrol boat of the port authority this morning. The Sansovino ship that was supposed to transfer 200 migrants instead, has not arrived. According to the shipping company, a due to a failure but according to the passengers who should have left last night from Porto Empedocle it was the fault of the excessive delay that accu mulato. The sanitization operations after each trip in fact last several hours. The Sansovino ship yesterday morning after exiting the port returned to allow boarding for about 200 migrants, thus delaying the departure for Porto Empedocle by several hours. Departure for the Pelagie is scheduled for tonight. 

The Interior Ministry said in a note that "from 16 July, flights to return to Tunisia have resumed with organized charters for a total of 80 Tunisian citizens transferred after the lockdown block. The goal - they say - is to increase, even with contingents extraordinary, the number of weekly repatriations.

In fact, in large part, arrivals came from Tunisia, also through autonomous landings. As of July 24, out of 11,191 migrants landed in Italy, 5,237 left from Tunisia and of these almost 4 thousand are Tunisian citizens " . According to the magistrates of the Prosecutor's Office of Agrigento, Tunisian fishermen turn into smugglers. The latest investigation led to the arrest of 23 Tunisians. "He seems to have come back ten years ago - says the assistant prosecutor of Agrigento Vella in an interview with La Stampa.

" Before the fishing boats traveled without nets or equipment precisely because in reality they only had to carry migrants, now they do the one and the other and fishermen are also smugglers. We found nets on board, even if dry and a little fish. "So the boats cross the Mediterranean without arousing any suspicion, as well as the presence of small boats on board.

Hundreds of small boats have arrived in Lampedusa in recent weeks "Almost all of them are Tunisians and therefore economic migrants - explains Vella - who can almost never have humanitarian protection even if there are those who try to be clever with stratagems". "Every day we seize thirty boats and deal with about twenty arrests in flagranza because they are already expelled people. "

The magistrate does not hide his concern:" Unfortunately the climate in Lampedusa has changed, we are monitoring the situation of public order. "

And in fact in Porto Empedocle it was a night of tension in which several tourists asked for a ticket refund after waiting for the ship to Lampedusa, which arrived late and never left again. According to the story of the people on board the nav and, the delay was due to the boarding procedures of more than 300 migrants, who actually got off and placed, on foot, in the nearby tensile structure of Porto Empedocle, already saturated.

After sanitizing the premises, some of the vacationers heading to Lampedusa were invited to sleep on the ship. Many, however, preferred to go home, not without anger: some tourists, in escalation in the ticket offices, were identified by the police, who monitored the port area all night.