UPDATE – Italy allows minors and the sick to leave migrant ship as 144 of the 170 migrants on board of SOS Humanity disembark in Catania
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The NGO ‘Sos Humanity’ ship Humanity 1 arrived in the port of Catania on Saturday night, with 179 shipwrecked people on board.
As provided for in the new decree, a health inspection has been carried out to identify frail women and children, the only ones who are allowed to disembark.
Several vessels holding almost 1,000 migrants have been at sea off Italy for more than a week awaiting permission to dock from the country’s right-wing government that took office last month.
According to the NGO, at the end of the inspection there are 35 shipwrecked, and not 24 as mentioned above, who remain on board the ship. They are adult men, without medical problems. 144 of the 179 migrants who were on board the ship would therefore have landed in Catania.
epa10289662 Police officers and Red Cross members help migrants disembark from the ship Humanity 1 of the SOS Humanity NGO, at the port of Catania, Sicily, Italy, 06 November 2022. The ship carrying 179 migrants who were rescued at sea was initially forbidden to dock. Italy’s new interior minister said on 05 November that the government had adopted a decree to allow the ship to temporarily dock in order to let only minors and vulnerable people disembark. EPA-EFE/ORIETTA SCARDINO
On Friday, Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the German-flagged Humanity 1 ship with 179 people aboard would be allowed to release minors and those with health issues, adding the boat and the rest of those onboard would then be sent out of territorial waters.
“The first to disembark were minors and young children accompanied by mothers. Checks are still underway, but Catania has not been assigned to us as a safe harbor,” explained Petra Krischok, spokeswoman for Sos Humanity, speaking to journalists at the Levante pier after the first migrants were taken off the NGO ship.
“I’m not the captain, I don’t decide – he added – but leaving the port of Catania if they didn’t disembark all the migrants who are on board the ship would be illegal, because they are all refugees.” At the port, in addition to the staff of the Coast Guard, there are also law enforcement, ambulances, Civil Protection volunteers and urban buses, which were used for the transport of people disembarked to the Palaspedini, the sports hall of Piazza Spedini.
“The structure – confirms Marco Romano of the Civil Protection of the Municipality of Catania – is ready to welcome all guests present on Humanity 1. Even if the rumor takes hold that more NGO ships should arrive in Catania tomorrow, we will try to give the maximum of hospitality as always”.
“Being ordered to leave the port of Catania with rescued people remaining on board would constitute an illegal pushback,” Humanity said.
Italy’s Interior Ministry decline to comment on the issue on Sunday.
A second charity vessel that had asked Rome for a safe port to disembark 572 migrants was also ordered by Italian authorities to reach Catania, the press officer for the Geo Barents ship told Reuters.
