Boats carrying migrants wishing to make it to the EU continue to land on Italian shores, despite interior minister Matteo Salvini's 'closed ports' policy. On Saturday, 46 Algerians landed on Sardinia.
A large number of migrants without visas landed on the Sulcis coast in southern Sardinia on Saturday, in part thanks to good weather conditions at sea.
A total of 46 people, all Algerian nationals, landed on the island.
The first small boats arrived on the Porto Pino beach in the Sant'Anna Arresi municipality at around 7 am. A local saw the group of migrants walking around the area and alerted the carabinieri, who stopped 33 people, all adult men in good health.
A second boat landed at around 8:45 am, this time in the small Sant'Antioco port, where the carabinieri stopped another 13 Algerians. After a medical examination and being identified, they were reportedly taken to the Monastir reception center.
Police union laments lack of help
"We are seeing the same thing, every time. For months and months we have been seeing an undignified political fight over the issue of migrants arriving in Italy on NGO ships but migrants continue to land on Sardinia without any problems," said SIAP police union chief Mauro Aresu after the latest arrivals.
He added that "probably, to fix the problem, we should just hope that an NGO gets interested in the Algerian coasts."
NGO rescue boats have been patrolling mostly in the Central
Mediterranean, between Libya, Malta and Italy.
The Italian island Sardinia is in the middle of the Western Mediterranean. It is located roughly 200 kilometers west from mainland Italy and 200 kilometers north of the eastern Algerian coast.