Rome EFE.- The Italian Coast Guard has rescued more than 1,400 migrants in the last 24 hours in a new wave of barge arrivals from the North African coast, while the sea continues to return bodies from the shipwreck on February 26 off the coast of the coasts of Calabria.
On that same coast, a ship carrying 487 immigrants, most of them men from Afghanistan, was helped by the Coast Guard overnight and docked at the port of Crotone, while the patrol boat also arrived at the port of Reggio Calabria during the day. Dattilo with another 584 people rescued during the early morning.
The Sicilian ship of the Italian Navy is heading to the Sicilian port of Augusta, where 379 people rescued on the high seas were transferred by two Coast Guard boats.
With these last rescue operations, there are already 4,000 migrants who have reached the Italian coasts in the last four days.
Especially worrisome is the situation on the island of Lampedusa, a few miles off the North African coast, where about 2,700 migrants are crowded into a small reception center with a capacity for about 300 people.
Demonstration for the victims of the shipwrecks
In Cutro, nearly 5,000 people, including many representatives of humanitarian associations, have demonstrated under the slogan “Stop the massacre immediately” to protest the deaths of migrants.
The march, headed by a cross made from the wood of the boat that broke and sank on the Steccato de Cutro beach, was joined by many journalists who displayed an accreditation pass that had belonged to the Afghan journalist Amarkhel Torpekai, who died in the shipwreck in his attempt to flee the Taliban regime established in his country.
While the demonstration was taking place, the sea returned the body of a man, victim of the shipwreck last February, while during the morning the body of a 5 or 6-year-old girl had been located.
Faced with this scenario, the Italian government, chaired by the far-right Giorgia Meloni, approved a decree law that will increase the penalties for those considered “traffickers”, those in charge of driving the barges under the orders of criminal organizations on land.
If they are caught now, they could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, while before the penalty was a maximum of 5 years.
You criticize Meloni for karaoke with Salvini after the shipwreck in Calabria
Some opposition politicians and opinionists harshly criticized today the images that have gone viral of Giorgia Meloni and the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, who this Friday during the 50th birthday party of the League leader, sang karaoke together , despite the fact that bodies continue to be found from the shipwreck of February 26 off the coast of Calabria.
The video of the two singing during the birthday in which the other government partner and leader of Forza Italia, Silvio Berlusconi, also participated, was published by the deputy director of the newspaper “Il Giornale”, Nicola Porro, on his social networks.
“Yesterday was a very painful day for all of us, we buried some coffins, including a little girl. I must say that I was very impressed by the images that I saw of both the government press conference and the karaoke of Salvini and Meloni, who did not want to meet the families of the victims or pay tribute to the coffins, but found time to celebrate the 50th Minister Salvini’s birthday,” said Matteo Lepore, mayor of Bologna, the city where the funeral of some of the victims of the Cutro shipwreck was held yesterday.
Meanwhile, the spokeswoman for the opposition Democratic Party (PD), Simona Malpezzi, declared: “They did not pay tribute to Cutro’s dead, they put on a pathetic staging, they changed institutional commitments to go sing at Salvini’s party. Inhumanity, cynicism, improvisation and cruelty: this government explained it in a few gestures. What a shame…”.
