The ship Humanity 1 arrived at the port of Ravenna on Tuesday (April 25) at around 8:30 am.

The 69 migrants and refugees on board were rescued in international waters off the Libyan coast on April 20. Following their rescue, the 'Humanity 1' travelled hundreds of miles north to Ravenna, located in northeastern Italy.

Third migrant rescue ship arrival since December

The arrival of the Humanity 1 in Ravenna marked the third landing of an NGO ship in the city in recent months. In late December, the Ocean Viking landed with 113 migrants, of whom 34 were minors. And in mid-February, 84 migrants -- 58 of whom were minors -- disembarked there from the Ocean Viking.

The Italian government is currently pursuing a policy in which NGO ships are assigned ports to disembark people immediately after the rescue of a migrant boat. Since the introduction of this procedure at the end of last year, the authorities have often assigned ports located in central or northern Italy, far from the rescue spot.

30 migrants from Sudan

In Ravenna the local authorities carried out health checks following disembarkation and said that no COVID-19 cases were detected and that no one had to be hospitalized in the city hospital.

This is what the prefecture communicated following the rescue and shelter operations.

Among the migrants, the largest national group were Sudanese -- 30 of 69 people, according to the prefecture. There were also 10 Nigerian nationals among the migrants, as well as 6 people from Ghana, 5 from The Gambia, 4 from Eritrea and 3 from South Sudan. There were also some people from Senegal, Guiney, Mali, and Togo among the group, the authorities said.

There were 51 adult men and one adult woman among those who arrived, along with 17 unaccompanied minors. After their arrival, the minors reportedly stayed in Ravenna -- 16 of them at the Villaggio del Fanciullo center (a social cooperative) and one with a cooperative called Il Solco. The adults were sent to various regional provinces -- Bologna, Modena, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Ferrara, Forlì Cesena, and Rimini.

Local welfare councilor criticizes Meloni government

Upon the arrival of the migrants in Ravenna, regional Welfare Councilor Igor Taruffi said: "Once again the region of Emilia-Romagna is doing its share to support people who are fleeing from poverty and dramatic situations, often wars, confirming its commitment to solidarity and shelter."

The politician -- who belongs to a local progressive/ecological political group -- also criticized the government of far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni. He said that he wished that "the government [would] cooperate with local institutions to manage in a sensible and practical way what has been described as a national emergency, instead of forcing the boats to sail their way up in the peninsula or in any case head toward ports that are far. The local administrations cannot be left alone, there is the need to strengthen the system of widespread shelter and reception."