The Italian Coast Guard rescued 43 migrants on Sunday after the boat they were trying to cross the Mediterranean sank, although they could not save the life of a two-year-old girl who was traveling with her mother.
The authorities did not specify whether the survivors were located in the water or the boat capsized after being sighted by emergency teams, who found that the ship left Tunisia the night before and was heading to the Italian island.
Each of the passengers, mostly from the Ivory Coast, Guinea and Cameroon, had paid 2,500 dinars (about 800 euros) to make the journey, local media reported.
Among them, a two-year-old girl died in the Lampedusa outpatient clinic, as she was in serious condition and the doctors were unable to revive her. Several patients with fuel burns and others with drowning syndrome are admitted to this medical center.
This same Sunday, the Italian authorities allowed the disembarkation of another ship, the German Sea Eye 4, which is traveling with 63 rescued migrants, in the port of Livorno (Tuscany), after a week traveling through the Mediterranean.
According to the media, the Government would have authorized this landing since the ship requested it immediately after the first rescue, which would conform to a new protocol that it will try to establish through a decree to regulate the arrival of migrants saved by NGOs in its costs.
These are the first rescues after the clash that the Italian government had with some NGOs at the beginning of November by preventing for days the disembarkation of the people it had rescued by applying its new anti-immigration policy of letting only vulnerable migrants down.
A rule, devised by the Vice President and Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, promoter of the Italian policy of "closed ports" to humanitarian NGOs, allowed, initially, only immigrants who, after a medical evaluation, proved to be in a situation of vulnerability.
So far this year, almost 96,000 people have arrived on the Italian coast, compared to 63,000 last year, according to the Ministry of the Interior, which has also warned of the "considerable increase" of entries into Italy by land through the Balkan route.
According to official data, 4,101 immigrants were counted between January 1 and October 25, 2022, compared to 1,350 in the same period of 2021, which represents an increase of 203.78%.
