New landing of migrants at the Port of Roccella Jonica, in the Locride.
During the night, at the end of a rescue operation at sea carried out by the Coast Guard, another 90 migrants of various nationalities arrived, mainly Afghans, Pakistanis and Syrians.
Among the refugees there are also 24 women and 14 minors, some of whom are unaccompanied.
Before being rescued, transferred onto a patrol boat of the Roccella Jonica Coast Guard and taken safely into the Port of Rocciallo, the migrants were on board a twenty-metre long sailboat which left the coast of Turkey about four days ago, located about 75 miles from the Ionian coast of Calabria.
After disembarking, the refugees underwent a medical examination and subsequently, at the disposal of the Prefecture of Reggio Calabria, they were temporarily placed in a tensile structure built some time ago inside the Port of Rocciallo and managed by volunteers from the Red Cross, the Civil Protection and by a team of Doctors Without Borders.
With the latter, the number of landings of refugees rose to 12, in the Port of Roccella alone, equal, in 2023, to a total of about two thousand migrants.
Last year, still in the port of Reggio Calabria, there were 87 migrants landing for a total of over seven thousand refugees.
Furthermore, this morning the Ocean Viking, the ship of the NGO Sos Mediterranée, arrived in the port of Bari, with 29 migrants on board - including two unaccompanied minors - rescued Thursday evening off the coast of Malta and coming from Sudan and Bangladesh.
One of the minors has health problems and, after
identification, will be taken to a hospital in the Apulian capital.
The other 28, however, will be hosted in the CARA of Bari-Palese.
According to the same organization, "the fiberglass boat on which" the migrants "faced the rough sea" had been sailing "for five days, adrift in the Sar area" of Valletta.
The ship took two days to reach Bari, the port of disembarkation chosen by the Italian authorities, traveling 770 kilometers at sea.
"Although they were aware of the situation - Sos Mediterranée wrote on social media - the maritime authorities did not rescue the people, left at the mercy of all the worsening weather elements".
Patrolling the area where rescue operations took place were "a Maltese helicopter" which "flew over the dinghy and an Italian patrol boat", but "neither vehicle" assisted the NGO.