Over 108 migrants have disembarked at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo after spending several days at sea on board the Danish container ship Alexander Maersk pending authorization to dock in Italy.
The odyssey has ended for the 108 migrants - all men except for one woman and two children - on board the Alexander Maersk, when the Italian government gave them the green light to disembark in Pozzallo on Monday after several days at sea.
The Danish container ship arrived in port shortly after midnight and the migrants were transferred to the Pozzallo hotspot for identification. Maritime doctor Vincenzo Morello, who boarded the ship before it docked to identify possible medical emergencies, said the migrants were all in good health.
A family reunited
The 108 migrants had been rescued by the Lifeline, the ship operated by the German NGO that is now caught up in an arm-wrestling match between EU states over who should take it in. The arrival of the Alexander Maersk has also allowed a family to be reunited after an 8-year-old girl had to be airlifted to hospital on Saturday morning suffering from severe dehydration as a result of gastroenteritis. Her mother and two-year-old sister traveled with her, while her father and four-year-old brother remained on board.
Appeals for solidarity
The case of the Sudanese family that had to be separated and stormy weather along the Ragusa coast led the mayor of Pozzallo Roberto Ammatuna to ask the Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to authorize the migrants to disembark. His call was shared by the national ombudsman for the right of people who have been detained or deprived of personal freedom, Mauro Palma, who in a letter asked Italian coast guard commander Admiral Giovanni Pettorino for "urgent information about the orders given concerning the impossibility of the container ship to dock", claiming that the migrants on board had been "deprived de facto of their personal freedom". And in the evening the interior ministry authorized the Alexander Maersk to dock.