More than a thousand migrants disembarked on Saturday July 23 and Sunday July 24 in Italy while hundreds of others waited on board humanitarian ships. On Saturday, more than 600 people trying to cross the Mediterranean on board a fishing boat were rescued by a merchant ship and the coastguards off Calabria, in the far south of Italy’s boot. They were unloaded in several ports of Sicily. The authorities also found on board five bodies of dead migrants in still undetermined circumstances.
On the island of Lampedusa, 522 people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia in particular arrived overnight from Saturday to Sunday aboard fifteen different boats, in from Tunisia and Libya. According to the Italian media, the reception center of this small rock is overwhelmed. With a capacity of 250-300 people, it currently houses 1,200, says the Ansa press agency.
The daily La Sicilia specifies that the last landings in Lampedusa saw ships with dozens, even hundreds of people on board, but also small inflatables. Thus four Tunisians, including a woman, were stranded in the night on the beach of Cala Pisana after crossing the small arm of the sea which separates Tunisia from the island. Simultaneously, the coastguards intercepted a 13-meter vessel, leaving Zawija in Libya, with 123 Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Egyptians and Sudanese on board.
34,000 people arrived by sea since January 1
In addition, sea rescue NGOs continue to recover hundreds of migrants lost in the Mediterranean. SeaWatch said on Sunday it carried out four rescue operations on Saturday. “Aboard SeaWatch3 we have 428 people, including women and children, a nine-month pregnant woman and a patient with severe burns”said the NGO on its Twitter account.
The #SeaWatch3 has now 428 people on board, rescued from 4 overcrowded boats within 12 hours yesterday. More details in the thread ⬇️ (1/5) pic.twitter.com/GaVwwke47e
— Sea-Watch International (@seawatch_intl) July 24, 2022
The OceanViking, of the NGO SOS Méditerranée, said it had recovered 87 people, including 57 unaccompanied minors, piled up on “an overcrowded rubber boat in distress in international waters off Libya”.
Between January 1 and July 22, 34,000 people arrived by sea in Italy, compared to 25,500 in the same period of 2021 and 10,900 in 2020, according to the interior ministry. This seasonal increase in arrivals during the summer coincides this year in Italy with the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Draghi. The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella has dissolved Parliament and set elections for September 25, in which the right and the extreme right are the favourites.
Sunday morning on TwitterMatteo Salvini, leader of the League, lamented the arrival of “411 illegal immigrants in a few hours in Lampedusa”. “On September 25, Italians will finally be able to choose change: for the return of security, courage and border control”he wrote.