A week after the last of six rescues in the central Mediterranean, Doctors Without Borders’ Geo Barents has obtained a port of destination: it is Augusta, eastern Sicily, where the ship is expected to enter the commercial port as early as the afternoon. In fact, the Geo Barents had been sailing for days in that stretch of sea between southern Sicily and the area north of Catania. In Augusta, the 439 migrants that the ship has on board will finally be able to disembark, and among them numerous unaccompanied minors and people of different nationalities, especially sub-Saharanians, who on board have told of the violence suffered in Libya and the horrors to which they have been subjected, even for years.
The humanitarian ship, one of the largest in the NGO fleet, had been asking for a “Pos” for days, a safe harbor, first in Malta in whose SAR search and rescue area, most of the rescue operations had taken place and that however, he had denied it; then to Italy, which in any case waited several days before giving an answer, probably also to wait for seats to be freed up on one of the quarantine ships that will have to welcome all migrants of age due to anti-Covid regulations. At anchor, inside the port of Augusta, there have already been two quarantine ships, the Snav Aurelia and the Gnv Azzurra for days.
In Lampedusa other arrivals of migrants during the night, thanks also to the improved weather conditions: 98 landed. Yesterday evening they were preceded by 112 people on three other boats. Yesterday another 88 people arrived with two boats.
In front of the Tunisian coasts, searches continue for the missing people from the shipwreck that took place off the coast of Zarzis, where yesterday a boat that left Libya capsized causing the occupants to end up in the sea: 6 dead people, at least thirty missing, 34 rescued. In the last 48 hours, the Tunisian Coast Guard has blocked 8 attempts to leave migrants, returning 130 people to Tunisia and imprisoning them.
