The two Italian ships with 450 migrants on board docked in Pozzallo. The odyssey that saw the Italian government at the forefront to assert the considerations expressed at the end of June by the European partners has finally ended. On a voluntary basis, all EU countries offered to contribute to the reception. Opposition emerged from the Visegrad countries, Prague shouted, "now hell begins". However, France, Germany, Malta, Spain, Portugal and Ireland have offered their availability. It is a success, according to insiders. Finally Italy has not been left alone and the migrants through Italy have landed in Europe.
The EU: “We share the urgency expressed by Conte” “We confirm that we have received the letter from Prime Minister Conte which was addressed to Presidents Tusk and Juncker. In the letter he asks for immediate implementation of the conclusions reached at the European Council and we will respond shortly ”. Thus the spokesman of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas. “In general and without going into details, the Commission fully shares the sense of urgency and is committed to following up quickly on the conclusions reached by the Council as far as we are concerned,” concludes Schinas. "The Commission welcomes that both the Protector and Monte Sperone ships landed in Pozzallo and this was possible thanks to 6 EU member states that have decided to welcome and share migrants, including Italy, France, Germany, Malta, Spain and Portugal ". The spokesman of the EU Commission Schinas said so. "Italy has long been asking for regional cooperation on landings and is right to ask for it, the Commission believes that ad hoc solutions are not sustainable in the long term and is asking for a new push on the basis of the European Council". The Commission will present its proposals in the last week of July or the first of August to follow up on part of the conclusions of the European Council on migrants: in particular, the EU executive should put on the table the proposal on supervised centers in the countries of first entry and a redistribution of asylum seekers among some EU countries. This will be a “concept note”, a rough description, which should allow Member States who decide to participate on a voluntary basis to implement regional cooperation on landings.
The health conditions of migrants are critical. Eight people, all women and children, were transported to Lampedusa aboard Coast Guard patrol boats for health reasons. A pregnant woman together with her sister and a very debilitated mother were transported by helicopter rescue to the hospital in Palermo. “Their health conditions are particularly serious - the doctor Pietro Bartolo reports to Adnkronos - one woman, in particular, was skinny, hadn't eaten for weeks”. Three other men, also very serious, are in hospital in Palermo. A woman of Eritrean origin, very dehydrated and debilitated, judged in danger of life, was transferred from the boat of the Guardia di Finanza on a patrol boat and taken to the hospital in Modica.
The stories of those who have seen the conditions of the most tried people are dramatic. “Seeing them like this - says a nurse from the Polyclinic of Lampedusa - brings to mind the effects of the German concentration camps of the Second World War, so important are the states of malnutrition and dehydration. One of the guys who speaks some English told us that for several months they could only eat 30 grams of pasta a day and nothing else ”. One of the patients transferred to Palermo, however, is 27 years old, is skinny, weighs 35 kg. She would have spent "seven dramatic months" in Libya, where she would also have been raped. With her is her 4-year-old daughter. “She hasn't eaten for three days, help her - the woman just managed to say - give her some food please…”.