Christmas of death in the Mediterranean. From the Aegean to the Sicilian channel to Libya, despite the rough sea and the bad weather conditions, hundreds of migrants attempted the journey of hope towards Europe, and dozens died, while on the Italian coasts the landings continued unabated: only today 490 have landed in Calabria. Twenty-eight bodies were abandoned by the waves on the beach of Al-Alous, 90 kilometers west of Tripoli, where three migrants who survived the sinking of their small boat were also rescued by the Libyan Red Crescent. This is after at least 30 corpses were recovered in the water near Greek islands in recent days: 11 Thursday in view of the islet of Antikhytera (Anticitera) and a few hours later, Friday, 16 off Paros, including a newborn and three women, compared to 63 rescued after a rubber dinghy with at least 80 people on board capsized. On Saturday, on Christmas day, a rubber boat capsized not far from the island of Folegandros and three people drowned. But there were between 32 and 50 people on board, who are mostly still missing and could turn this shipwreck into the worst sea tragedy in the Aegean this year.
Migrants, two shipwrecks in Greece: at least 27 dead
All the submerged and rescued of this part of the week, not only the Libyans, had only one destination: Italy. According to reports from the Turkish broadcaster Ert, new and increasingly dangerous routes to our country are being attempted by traffickers from Cesme and Bodrum, on the west coast of Turkey. “In recent days the activity of smugglers of people, who are indifferent to human life, has intensified, piling dozens of desperate people without life jackets on boats that do not even have the minimum safety requirements”, thundered the Greek minister. on maritime matters, Giannis Plakiotakis, accusing Ankara of “letting the traffickers act undisturbed”.
But even the central Mediterranean did not know rest: the port of Crotone welcomed 490 refugees from the sea in a few hours, wave after wave. A first landing at dawn, with 90 people on a sailing ship intercepted by a patrol boat from the Roan of the Guardia di Finanza, and a second with 400 other people rescued at sea by a Russian-flagged merchant ship, whose size made docking difficult to the Calabrian port. Alarm Phone launched an SOS after they lost contact with a boat with 25 migrants on board that was adrift 200 miles off the coast of Malta. The Italian coast guard has also set out on his trail. Another boat with 96 people on board, including a woman in the ninth month of pregnancy, was rescued in the Libyan SAR by Seawatch 3, which is looking for a port after having collected, between the 24 and today, 446 migrants in five rescue at sea, including the latter. On Christmas day, the Ocean Viking docked in Trapani with a load of 114 migrants and the Sea Eye 4 landed 214 in Pozzallo. Another 100 people landed at Capo Rizzuto, in Calabria, aboard a sailing ship, while on 24 December a boat landed the 154 people crammed on board at Capo di Leuca, in Salento.
But in the meantime 89 people from Bangladesh, Eritrea, Pakistan and Gambia landed yesterday in Lampedusa, joining another 253 who landed with at least three different landings on Christmas Eve. The first reception center of Imbriacola, on the Sicilian island, has begun to transfer at least 363 guests, thus relieving the hotspot which in recent days has seen its population reach 511 guests with a capacity of 250 seats.
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