Some 353 migrants rescued by the
Sea Watch 4 NGO ship will go onto a quarantine ship after they
reach Palermo, interior ministry sources said Tuesday.
They will be transhipped onto the 'Gnv Allegra', the third
quarantine vessel laid on by the ministry.
The operation will probably take place off Palermo.
Before the op, the Allegra will have to complete prescribed
technical and sanitary inspections and take on board medical
staff and assistants from the Italian Red Cross.
The transhipment will then take place.
The Sea Watch 4 is expected to reach Palermo in the early hours
of Wednesday morning.
Subsequently, the quarantine ship is expected to move to a
position off Lampedusa.
Nationalist League party leader Matteo Salvini said "if the Sea
watch goes to Palermo we will report the government to the
police".
Sicily Governor Nello Musumeci and Lampedusa Mayor Toto'
Martello will be received by Premier Giuseppe Conte in Rome on
Wednesday, sources said Monday amid a migrant row.
Musumeci's recent closure ordinance for the island's migrant
centres amid alleged COVID fears was suspended after a legal
appeal by the government.
Martello, for his part, on Monday threatened a general strike on
the Sicilian island due to the migrant emergency which has
crammed its migrant centre past bursting point.
Lampedusa residents have protested migrant landings.
Martello met with local business owners to decide on the protest
Monday.
Also present at the meeting was former League Senator Angela
Maraventano.
But the strike was called off pending the talks with Conte.
There are now just over 1,000 migrants at the island's hotspot
and its 'Fraternity House' after some 200 were transferred to
Sicily.
On Sunday a boat with 21 migrants aboard caught fire off Crotone
in Calabria while migrants were being trans-shipped, and at
least three died.
British street artist Banksy's rescue ship got into difficulty
and had to be helped by an Italian coastguard vessel.
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