More than 140 migrants have left this Sunday the rescue ship ‘Humanity 1’, of the German NGO SOS Humanity, in the Sicilian port of Catania, as confirmed by a spokesman of the organization, after receiving last night the permission to enter the port on the east coast of the Italian island.
The minors on board have been the first to disembark while the adults have remained on board to undergo a medical examination. About 30 migrants have not received disembarkation permission for the moment. According to SOS Humanity, one man fainted and had to be transferred to land.
The measures are in line with the policy recently announced by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, a member of the government led by far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who had promised to toughen national migration policy during her campaign.
Italy now allows the disembarkation of injured men, women and children, in general, but wants to hold accountable the countries where the rescue boats are registered. In the case of the ‘Humanity 1’, that country is Germany.
The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, has called this Sunday for a solution at the European Union level to the problem of migrants arriving by boat. Speaking to ‘Il Messaggero’, Tajani explained that it is right to accept the sick, women and children, while acknowledging that the government has strengthened its identification policy.
«We cannot turn the Mediterranean into a cemetery, but we have to know who is on board, where they come from and where they were picked up,» he has indicated.
Three other vessels operated by private rescue organizations and carrying rescued migrants are stopped off the eastern coast of Sicily awaiting clearance from a port. The vessels ‘Rise Above’, ‘Geo Barents’ and ‘Ocean Viking’ are carrying a total of 900 rescued migrants.
