After nine days at sea, migrants rescued by the ship Geo Barents, owned by Doctors without Borders, disembark today in Taranto. The NGO humanitarian unit arrived in the Apulian port of the hotspot in the early morning. After being assigned by the Interior Ministry in Taranto, she sailed in the last hours to reach the Ionian coasts. Disembarkation and refugee reception operations began around 9 am: there are 659 people, including 159 minors, migrants from Africa rescued in the waters of the Mediterranean in some rescue operations.
“The news we were waiting for has finally arrived – Doctors Without Borders had written on Twitter on the go-ahead from the ministry -. After almost 9 days spent at sea, the 659 survivors on board the Geo Barents will be able to disembark in the port of Taranto. This must not happen again. that vulnerable people are stranded at sea for such a long period “.
Also this time, assistance and first aid have been activated, to help migrants in some cases exhausted by the long crossing: the Prefecture of Taranto is in charge of coordinating the rescue operations. In the field there are the Police and the local Police, the Civil Protection, the Red Cross, 118, the Municipality of Taranto and numerous volunteers. Once on land and receiving the first necessary care and support, the migrants are temporarily transferred to the hotspot of the same port. The port of Taranto is frequently a landing destination for humanitarian ships. On 30 July, the German NGO Sea Watch 3 arrived with 438 migrants on board, including over 100 minors, who had been rescued in various rescue operations at sea, in front of Libya.
Before this today, the Geo Barents had been assigned to Taranto on 13 July, when the 314 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea by the same NGO arrived. Among the migrants, there were 70 minors and a 3-month-old baby, all then assigned to assistance structures; the same ship of Doctors without Borders had also landed in Taranto on 6 July, with another 65 refugees but also with the body of a 29-year-old from Cameroon, pregnant, who died while sailing.
Landing operations
For this latest arrival of the Geo Barents in Taranto, the landing operations continued throughout the day on a regular basis. Many migrants were tired, some exhausted from the long crossing, but there were no major health emergencies: only a minor boy, who had a fever, was taken by the Red Cross to the SS hospital. Annunziata di Taranto, for the necessary treatments and investigations.
At 19.30, 298 migrants had left the ship, just under half of the total number of people rescued. In the evening and at night the welcome will continue, proceeding in groups of 50 people, who, once on the ground, are refreshed, checked at the sanitary level and identified. Once the identification is complete, the group reaches the hotspot and only then will other people get off the ship.
From the hotspot, they will then find other destinations in the reception centers in the following hours. Explains the president of the Red Cross of Taranto, Anna Fiore: “In all, there are 133 minors, 33 of whom are accompanied and the others unaccompanied, 493 adults, of whom 29 are women, five children under one year, some newborns”. Volunteers are engaged for several hours in providing first aid and reception.
“Our aim – says Fiore adds – is that of a welcome not only made up of material goods, but humanitarian; without this it would have no value. Let us always embrace them as brothers – he says, referring to migrants – Despite what they say, our people always welcome them as brothers ”. Among the volunteers, there is also the Civil Protection of the Municipality of Taranto. The coordinator Alessandro Basta underlines the commitment of the group, of all the volunteers and, in general, of the welcome machine put in place, “with the heart, at the service of the people”.