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“The Turkish boat was released after 5 days and we have been waiting for our fishermen for 3 months: it is a shame.” This is what the relatives of the 18 seafarers blocked in Libya since September 1 say during a protest in Mazara del Vallo, near the house of the parents of Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede. On December 5, General Khalifa Haftar’s LNA (Libyan National Army) soldiers detained the Turkish ship ‘Mabroukà with 17 crew members, released this morning after paying a fine. “You are incompetent, how is it possible that they were 11 kilometers from Tobruk and they have already been released and we are still here screaming for 102 days?”, Asks Giuseppe Giacalone, owner of one of the fishing boats that escaped the night of the kidnapping and father of one of the seafarers still in detention in Libya. The two fishing boats Antarctica and Medinea also remain blocked in the port of Benghazi, detained 38 miles off the coast of Benghazi. Shouting ‘Free the fishermen’, family members protest with whistles and display the banner symbolizing their complaint. Digos agents are present on the site. “My husband and the other men had gone to work, we no longer pay taxes,” says Cristina Amabilino, wife of one of the fishermen, looking toward the house where Bonafede’s parents live. The president of the city council, Vito Gancitano, was also present in the place, according to whom “this protest makes us understand many things, these people cannot take it anymore, there are no more words to spend, especially after this episode (the liberation of the Turkish ship , ed) if not one more appeal to all institutions, including our fellow citizen Alfonso Bonafede ».
“Call your son, we have to intervene now,” says the family. “We are completely abandoned and we run the risk of feeling physically ill, there are older women here who no longer know which saint to turn to,” says Anna Giacalone, mother of one of the 18 fishermen, through tears. During the protest, Cristina Amabilino, wife of another of the fishermen, telephoned Farnesina hands-free, asking to speak with Minister Luigi Di Maio, without success. “The release of the Turkish freighter – adds Anna Giacalone – shows that our diplomacy has no weight, we are paying because we are Italians.”
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