A group of Eritreans that had been rescued and disembarked by the Diciotti Italian coast guard ship but who failed to return to a migrant reception center have been found by the police in Ventimiglia. The migrants had been travelling towards Campo Roja, a center run by the Red Cross from which migrants try to enter France.
Security forces said that the 34 had been part of a group of 51 that were travelling on a bus rented by the Rome-based humanitarian organization Baobab Experience and that they were accompanied by 4 workers from the organization.
'We accompanied them to protect them'
Police had in recent days in Ventimiglia recognized 21 Eritreans that had been on the Diciotti but now only three are known to still be there. The others have disappeared. ''We accompanied 48 migrants, some of whom were Eritreans that had been brought ashore by the Diciotti, to the Red Cross camp in Ventimiglia because this was what they wanted. They were sleeping in the streets in Rome, on the sidewalks, and there were women and children among them. We did this to protect them, legally renting a bus to move across the country,'' Baobab Experience coordinator Andrea Cost said on the latest group of migrants formerly on the Diciotti found in Ventimiglia. ''We accompanied them to the Red Cross camp,'' he added, ''where security forces took them in.''
Proceedings continue against Minister Salvini
In Palermo, the Italian ministers court met officially on September 10 to draw up guidelines for judicial proceedings against Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who is under investigation for aggravated kidnapping for the Diciotti case. The case began being examined on Saturday and will have to be closed within 90 days. The first issue to address is jurisdiction to assess which place the alleged illicit conduct by Salvini began: the waters off Lampedusa, where the migrants were rescued, or the Catania port, where the Diciotti remained for days while waiting for authorization to disembark the migrants. In the first case, the inquiry would remain under the head of the Palermo judiciary, to which official documents have been transferred from Agrigento, which has jurisdiction to investigation but is not a ministers court. Jurisdiction for the case would instead be under the Catania judiciary if it were to be assessed that this was where they were prevented from going ashore.