An endless exodus. In 24 hours, about 400 people landed at the port of Crotone.
Earlier, in the night, 89 refugees coming mostly from Afghanistan. From the morning however, also thanks to the good weather conditions, four boats were intercepted off the coast of Crotone. On two occasions, in the early hours of the morning, the migrants were transferred to a unit of the Crotone harbor master’s office which then brought about 200 people to the port. A patrol boat of the Guardia di Finanza subsequently intercepted a sailing ship with about ninety people on board (they too then disembarked at the port), while in the afternoon it was a Romanian patrol boat operating under the Frontex system to rescue about 100 people and bring them to Crotone.
Overall, according to data from the immigration office of the Crotone Police Headquarters which proceeded with the identification of migrants, 660 people arrived in Calabria in a day and a half (289 Friday and 371 Saturday), almost all from Afghanistan, Iran and partly from Syria and Egypt. From the first testimonies collected, the migrants would have left the Turkish coasts between 7 and 8 August. All landing operations were coordinated by the Prefecture of Crotone. The refugees were taken to the reception center of Isola Capo Rizzuto by the Italian Red Cross of Crotone.
While over 200 people landed in Lampedusa aboard a boat. This is the thirteenth landing of the day which raised the number of people arriving to 394. Shortly before, two small boats with 10 and 15 Tunisians were spotted and rescued. The boats appear to have left from Sfax and Chebba in Tunisia. 430 guests are being transferred from the hotspot which hosted 780 people in the early afternoon.