Fleeing Tunisia on the migrant boat, a businessman from Molise lands in Lampedusa

From Tunisia to Lampedusa on the migrant boat. A 40-year-old Italian businessman, originally from Santa Maria del Molise, chose to return home like this instead of by plane or boat which, as an Italian citizen, with a regular passport, of course, he could have taken. Like in the film Tolo Tolo by Checco Zalone.

The man, who a few years ago had opened a textile company in Tunisia, found himself in financial difficulties, persecuted by creditors and, probably, also by the Tunisian authorities and on September 19 he chose the escape route by challenging the Mediterranean.

He arrived in Lampedusa on September 20 on the weekend when on the island, taking advantage of the good weather, up to 26 barchin and barges landed in just over 24 hours. The businessman Molise was traveling in a small fishing boat along with 50 other people. When the coast guard saw him with great surprise, he immediately said that he was Italian and showed his passport. On the ground he was swabbed, negative, and after the identification procedures he was sent and returned to his home in Santa María del Molise where he is undergoing quarantine.

The mayor of the small town of Molise Michele Labella came to visit him at his home: “Our fellow citizen has duly declared himself to the local health authority and is undergoing quarantine at his home.”

No crime, an Italian citizen with valid documents can return to his country as he wishes. But in Sicily, investigators are investigating his status to understand whether Tunisian authorities were looking for the man in any way, which would explain his choice not to show up at a border site in Tunisia.