Last night the Humanity 1 ship of the NGO 'Sos Humanity' arrived in the port of Catania, carrying 179 shipwrecked people, escorted by a Coast Guard patrol boat.
As foreseen by the new decree, a health inspection was carried out to identify fragile women and children, the only ones allowed to disembark.
According to the NGO,
at the end of the inspection there are
35 survivors, and not 24 as previously mentioned, who remain on board the ship.
These are adult men, with no medical problems.
144 of the 179 migrants who were on board the ship would therefore have landed in Catania
.
Meanwhile, the Geo Barents, search and rescue ship of Doctors Without Borders, with 572 shipwrecked on board, has arrived in the port of Catania.
The ship, as reported by the NGO, has received authorization from the Italian authorities to assess cases of vulnerability on board.
This is the second ship present in the port of Catania: last night the Humanity 1 docked in the eastern pier, carrying 179 migrants, of which 144 disembarked following the inspection on board.
Meanwhile, France will finalize on Tuesday, in a meeting of its Ministry of the Interior, the modalities for the reception of migrants disembarked in Italy.
Sources from the same French ministry point out to ANSA confirming the willingness expressed last Friday by Minister Gerald Darmanin to welcome 'a part of the migrants,
of women and children, so that Italy does not have to take on the burden of this arrival alone '.
According to the same source, the green light for the transfer will come after an inspection in Italy by the French immigration officers who will carry out interviews with the migrants to be welcomed.
Humanity 1 in Catania, 155 out of 179 landed
"The first to disembark were minors and small children accompanied by their mothers. The checks are still in progress, but Catania has not been assigned to us as a safe harbor", explained Petra Krischok, spokesperson for Sos Humanity, speaking with reporters on the pier. di Levante after the first migrants are taken off the NGO ship.
"I'm not the captain, I don't decide - she added - but leaving the port of Catania if all the migrants on board the ship were not to disembark would be illegal, because they are all refugees".
At the port, in addition to the Coast Guard personnel, there are also law enforcement agencies, ambulances, civil protection volunteers and urban line buses, which have been used to transport people disembarked to the Palaspedini, the sports hall in the square. Shipping.
"The structure - confirms Marco Romano of the Civil Protection of the Municipality of Catania - is ready to welcome all the guests present on Humanity 1. Even if the rumor that other NGO ships should arrive in Catania tomorrow, we will try to give as always the utmost in hospitality ".
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Not far in the port, behind a banner with the inscription #portiaperti,
about thirty activists staged a protest to the slogan of "all free and all free", demanding the immediate disembarkation of all the castaways.
According to the new decree, fragile people, women and children will be identified during the inspection: the only ones - according to the provision - who have the requisites to disembark.
Humanity 1 is one of the four NGO ships that for days have been asking for a safe harbor for the over a thousand migrants they have on board, stationed off the eastern coast of Sicily, in the Catania area.
But from the Interior Ministry they reaffirm the line adopted: "those who have the requisites can disembark", but "
Position remarked by the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, who, from Milan, underlines that Italy takes "responsibility for what presents welfare and humanitarian problems", but, he explains, "without derogating from the fact that the taking charge are the responsibility of the flag State "and" without failing to fulfill its humanitarian obligations on which we will never back down ".
Migrants, MSF: 'It is not up to us to manage asylum requests'
A position, this of the government, which, according to Piantedosi, has led to "some openness to discussion" in Europe.
"I don't want to say that it will be accepted by our partners tomorrow morning", the minister specifies, but yesterday "there was a discussion that we wanted to reactivate".
Humanity 1, one of the ships with migrants off the coast of Sicily, yesterday received the notification of the government decree and in the next few hours there will be an inspection by the Italian authorities to identify, among the 179 on board, fragile women and children , which will be disembarked.
The others will have to leave Italian waters in an adequate time.
Meanwhile, talks will be initiated with European countries such as France, which have expressed their willingness to accept a share.
But
for the NGO Sos Humanity the measure "is illegal" because the 179 people rescued are "refugees, in a vulnerable state, some of them visibly traumatized: they need medical and psychological treatment"
.
And it raises the food stock alarm with "two hot meals that can only be provided for another three days".
Aboubakar Soumahoro, deputy of the Chamber of Verdi and the Italian Left, who is in Catania, also disputes the position of the government: "I will board ship # Humanity1 in the next few hours - he announces on social media - if the #Meloni government will keep human lives suspended in territorial waters Italians for ideological-identity propaganda Human lives are saved The electoral campaign is over.
ANSA agency
Cried, no backtrack on humanitarian commitment - Chronicle
'But obligations to be taken over are the responsibility of the flag State' (ANSA)
To govern is to respect the Constitution ". And his party colleague, Nicola Fratoianni, speaks of" heartbreaking and cynical game on the skin of the shipwrecked by the owner of the Interior Ministry ". For the secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini," it is unacceptable that not help the people who are on the ships where there are also many children ".
"Strong concern" is expressed by the Community of Sant'Egidio: "from the prefecture, the NGOs involved and the maritime authorities - says the president Emiliano Abramo - we are told that no authorization for landing has yet been received"
The four NGO ships continue to ask for a safe harbor: "ten days after first aid, the waiting for refugees on board is unacceptable", says Candida Lobes, MSF communications manager who manages Geo Barents, on which found 572 people.
"We have rationed the water and we are running out of food supplies - she adds - she and in this situation we cannot also take care of the management of asylum requests, which is not our responsibility".
In addition to the Doctors Without Borders ship and the Humanity 1 off Catania there is also the Rise Above, with 90 shipwrecked on board.
She continues to stay out of Italian territorial waters, while remaining close to her 'border', the Norwegian Ocean Viking, which rescued 234 migrants.
Meanwhile, two ships, not NGOs, with on board,
altogether, 147 migrants and two corpses arrived in the port of Augusta, in Syracuse.
They are Jean Francois Deniau, from Frontex, which rescued 88 people, and the oil tanker Zagara which, in two operations, rescued 59 migrants, also recovering two bodies.
Another landing in Roccella Ionica, where 81 migrants arrived.