The rescue ship Geo Barents operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) docked this Monday in the Sicilian port of Augusta, after requesting a safe port for days for the 322 people on board, including 95 minors.
The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) ship Geo Barents docked on Monday (August 23) in the Sicilian port of Augusta in Syracuse province after waiting for days off the coast of Sicily.
For four days, the crew had been calling for a safe harbor for the 322 migrants on board, including 95 minors. Eighty-five of the minors were unaccompanied and five children were under the age of five, one just a few days old.
"We are happy that the most vulnerable people can finally reach a safe place where their basic needs can be met and their rights protected," MSF tweeted.
The arrival of the Geo Barents came as the Libyan branch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released a sad number: As of August 21, 2021 on this year's Central Mediterranean migration route, 392 people have drowned and 632 people have disappeared. for a total of 1,024 people in total.
The IOM recalled that in all of 2020, there were a total of 381 official deaths and 597 missing persons, for an overall total of 978.
Cecilia Strada makes an appeal to MSF
On Sunday afternoon, Cecilia Strada launched a heartfelt appeal to MSF, asking for the immediate docking of the ship.
Strada had found himself in a similar situation a few days earlier, when he was aboard the ship ResQpeople, where he learned of the death of his father, Gino. There were 160 people rescued on board.
At the end, ResQpeople was able to dock in the port of Augusta on August 17. But history repeated itself and Strada took to Twitter to ask the authorities not to waste any more time. "They need to disembark as soon as possible," he tweeted on Sunday.
Torrent of landings in Italy
Meanwhile, after the landings recorded at the weekend, Monday was an intense day of landings at various points in Italy. About six boats landed in Lampedusa, with a total of 165 people. Three boats carrying 113 Tunisians were detained by the port authority and are financing police patrol boats about 10 miles off the southern coast of the island.
During the night between Sunday and Monday, the patrol boats rescued a 10-meter boat with 88 Tunisians on board, including 14 women and 10 minors, followed by two other small boats with 12 and 13 people on board, respectively.
A hundred migrants of various nationalities arrived shortly after dawn at the port "Porto delle Grazie" in Roccella Ionica, Calabria.
Financing the naval units of the Vibo police
Valentia intercepted two other ships in two different operations. Four people, two Turks, a Ukrainian and a Moldovan, were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking, while 127 migrants were taken to the port of Crotone.
About 10 miles off the coast of Gallipoli, in Puglia, the financial police intercepted a boat with an unknown number of migrants on board. It is currently unknown where they came from.
Seven adult Kurdish immigrants, all male, were located in Santa Maria di Leuca, in Puglia, after disembarking in the early afternoon from a half-cabin boat in the small marina of Castrignano del Capo. They probably landed together with other people who weren't located.
