Migrants, non-stop landings in Lampedusa: over 1,400 arrivals in three days

Endless landings in Lampedusa where over 1,400 migrants have landed in the last three days. Yesterday the landings continued throughout the day: 27 in all with 737 people arriving on the largest of the Pelagias. Among them over 70 women, about twenty minors and even two babies. The relay at the Favaloro pier of the patrol boats of the Guardia di Finanza and the Harbor Master’s Office went on without interruption until late at night. Sea carts intercepted a few miles from the island by the men of the Yellow Flames and the Coast Guard, but also autonomous landings, such as that of 27 migrants tracked down by the carabinieri in Via Madonna near the La Roccia campsite. The military blocked them as soon as they landed on the island, but no trace was found of the boat used for the crossing. A script, that of the rescue operations, which was repeated last night as well. Twelve landings registered in rapid succession starting at midnight. A small boat with 14 sub-Saharan migrants was tracked down by a patrol boat of the Guardia di Finanza about a mile and a half from the island. The same unit intercepted shortly after another six sea carts carrying respectively 17 (including 2 minors), 15 (including a woman and 4 minors), 16 (2 women and a minor), 15 (including a woman and a minor), 14 and 14 (including 3 minors) persons. Around 4 o’clock, however, it was the men of the Coast Guard who disembarked 61 migrants at the Favaloro pier, including two women: they were traveling on four boats intercepted off the coast of Lampedusa. Among them also a woman and 6 minors, 2 of which are unaccompanied. In Linosa, however, in the locality of Pozzolana di Ponente, the carabinieri tracked down 12 men of presumed Tunisian nationality. An uninterrupted flow that in the last three days has brought over 1,400 migrants to the island with the hotspot now on the verge of collapse. In the structure of the Imbriacola district, with a capacity of 250 seats, the attendance has broken through one thousand. The transfer machine, coordinated by the Prefecture, is active at full speed. Yesterday morning, 100 minors and vulnerable subjects left the island aboard the scheduled ferry bound for Porto Empedocle. In the afternoon, another 170 migrants were boarded on a Coast Guard ship bound for Pozzallo (Ragusa) with final destination Caltanissetta. In the evening, however, for another 80 people, the departure for Porto Empedocle was arranged, from here they will then be transferred to Crotone. Two quarantine ships are expected to arrive in Lampedusa today: the Azzurra and the Adriatic.