More than 350 migrants who were on the humanitarian ship Sea Watch 4 began to board a quarantine ship Wednesday afternoon near Palermo, Sicily (Italy), said the humanitarian NGO Sea Watch.
Read also: Migrants: the boat supported by Banksy in the Mediterranean rescued after his call for help
Among the 353 migrants are also those rescued in recent days by the ship chartered by British street artist Banksy.
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The first people have arrived on the quarantine ship and the operation is continuing,
" Mattea Weihe, a Sea Watch spokesperson, told AFP.
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Almost two weeks have passed since our first rescue operation and the people on board, including women and children, are now exhausted,
” the German NGO also wrote on its Twitter account.
The migrants aboard the Sea-Watch 4 were rescued in three separate operations, including that carried out by the pink and white Louise Michel, a 30-meter rescue boat sponsored by the mysterious artist Banksy.
At the same time, at nearby Cervello Hospital in Palermo, an immigrant mother who tested positive for Covid-19 and her newborn baby were being treated on Wednesday, the ANSA news agency reported.
The woman, who had started labor on Tuesday at the migrant reception center on the island of Lampedusa, had been put on a helicopter to be transferred to Palermo, but gave birth during the flight.
The recent arrivals of hundreds of migrants every day are fueling anger among officials in Lampedusa and Sicily, as the Covid-19 epidemic complicates the situation.
The president of the Sicily region, Nello Musumeci (right), and the mayor of Lampedusa, Toto Martello, were due to meet with Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte on Wednesday afternoon in Rome to discuss the issue, according to Italian media.
From August 1 of last year to July 31 of this year, more than 21,600 migrants arrived on the Italian coasts, an increase of about 150% compared to the approximately 8,700 landings of the previous year, according to official data. .
Despite this sharp increase, the number of migrant arrivals is still significantly lower than the figures of previous years, when Rome had not yet signed an agreement with Libya for its coast guards to prevent migrant departures.
