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On the migratory front, 2021 opened just as 2020 closed. That is, with new vessels intercepted in the Mediterranean and with him Ngo willing to bring people “torn” from the sea to our country.
It is the turn, in these first days of the new year, of the Spanish Open Arms. The ship currently has 265 migrants on board, rescued in some operations off the coast. Libya in the early hours of 2021. The Maltese government, in continuity with what it has done in the past, has responded negatively to the landing requests made by Open Arms.
The Spanish NGO ship continued sailing, arriving close to Italian waters. The turning point came Sunday night. As reported by the Open Arms itself, the go-ahead for the landing came from Rome and the airport of Porto Empedocle as a landing point.
“It will be a difficult night on deck – they wrote last night the Twitter Open Arms activists – The weather has deteriorated, it is raining and it is cold. After the refusal of Malta, Italy assigns Porto Empedocle as the landing port. We are happy for the people on board, one thought is for those who will face the storm tonight in a drifting boat ”.
Now the Spanish ship is near the Sicilian port. The NGO members wrote it once again: “A difficult night for the 265 people on board OpenArms and for the crew – read a post at 10:26 am – We have distributed emergency blankets to protect them from the cold and rain. We continue sailing towards Porto Empedocle, where we will await instructions ”.
A difficult night for the 265 people on board #The open arms and for the crew. We distribute emergency blankets to protect them from the cold and rain. We continue sailing towards Porto Empedocle, where we will await instructions.# Missione79
Ph Joan Mateu Parra pic.twitter.com/GL4g09DVQ4– Open Arms IT (@openarms_it) January 4, 2021
This morning along the southern coast of Sicily the sun has risen, the weather conditions seem good, unlike the last hours. Therefore, the 265 migrants aboard the Open Arms are likely to be transshipped Rhapsody. The latter is the quarantine ship used by the Viminale that has been sailing between the port and the port of Porto Empedocle for several weeks.
NGOs ready to return to their functions
In the Sicilian city, people prepare to witness the same scenes that have already been seen on several occasions in 2020: start-up of the reception machine, transfer of migrants and subsequent to transfer towards the centers of the island or other parts of Italy. And if a good day starts in the morning, the beginning of 2021 does not seem to promise anything good for all the Sicilian places already heavily tested by the migratory phenomenon in the year that has just ended.
Open Arms is the first disembarkation of migrants via an NGO ship in 2021. But judging by the proclamations of other NGOs in recent days, it should not remain the only one for long: even Sos Mediterranée, after the liberation of the Ocean Viking announced its intention to return to sea soon, while the Italian Mediterranea Saving Humans is assembling a new ship, the Mare Jonio 2, in view of the spring.
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