FROM THE CORRESPONDENT FROM CATANIA. Two days after the last rescue, 400 people on a boat that was taking in water from a leak, the Sea-Eye 4 has obtained the port of disembarkation: it is Trapani, western Sicily, where the ship that has about 800 migrants on board is waiting for tomorrow afternoon. As soon as they disembark, they will all be subjected to an anti-Covid swab and then transferred to quarantine ships. Unaccompanied minors will instead be taken to reception facilities on the mainland.
The go-ahead came this evening from the Interior Ministry, after yet another appeal to be quick came from the German NGO in the afternoon. The 800 people on board, the result of 7 different rescue operations in the central Mediterranean in recent days both in the Maltese SAR and in the Libyan SAR, had to be disembarked as soon as possible. The situation on the ship, in fact, is particularly difficult due to the large number of people on board and their management. Today the Rise Above ship of the NGO Mission Lifeline returned to the rescue of Sea-Eye 4, bringing food, water and medicines to the rescuers of the large but crowded humanitarian ship. The Sea-Eye 4 is currently located off the coast of Agrigento but in Italian territorial waters. In recent days he had asked the authorities of Malta for the Pos, the safe harbor, given that the most numerous rescue had taken place in the Sar of responsibility of Valletta, but they never received an answer.
Another NGO ship waiting for Pos, the Ocean Viking of Sos Mediterranee, today had to carry out some medical evacuations for people who are ill. These are two migrants who were in urgent need of hospitalization and who were taken away from the ship with an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat, along with four of their family members. There are now 308 people aboard the Ocean Viking. The ship is currently sailing north of Lampedusa.