Migrants continue to disembark on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where over 730 people have arrived in just over 24 hours. Over 2,000 people are packed into the local hotspot, while transfers continue in Porto Empedocle on Sicily.
During the night between Wednesday and Thursday, 239 migrants disembarked on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where patrol boats of the coast guard and the police rescued four small vessels in poor condition. Two other vessels landed directly on the island.
Police stopped 46 people, including a minor, who said that they were from Ivory Coast, Gambia, Mali, Senegal, Sudan, and Guinea, at the Cala Madonna roundabout. Two Tunisians were also apprehended near a sports field.
On Wednesday, there were 13 disembarkations of a total of 492 migrants. The newest arrivals were taken to a hotspot in the Imbriacola area where, for the moment, there are 2,133 people hosted.
The Agrigento prefect's office ordered that 1,010 migrants be transferred on Thursday: 600 were escorted by the police to the port and travelled by ferry to Porto Empedocle, on Sicily's mainland; another 180 flew with an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) flight to Cagliari, in Sardinia; and 230 boarded an evening ship scheduled to arrive on Friday morning at dawn in Porto Empedocle.
Transfers continue to Porto Empedocle
On Wednesday evening, via a Galaxy ferry that left from Lampedusa in the morning, another 586 migrants were transferred to Porto Empedocle. From there, 90 were transferred overnight to the Calabria region.
There are now 631 migrants in the pre-identification area of Porto Empedocle.
Also on Wednesday the Agrigento prefect's office managed to evacuate a camp by transferring over 1,100 people in 23 buses to reception facilities.