Life Support, the Emergency ship that rescued a small boat in the Libyan SAR area on Monday 17 August, has docked at the port of Bari. On board, 48 migrants originating mainly from Somalia and Egypt. They left from Zuwara. The boat also carries seven corpses, migrants who died during the crossing probably due to carbon monoxide and were stored in cold storage. Two other rescued people were evacuated to the Maltese SAR area. They travel in the hold together with the seven refugees who lost their lives. The 118 and civil protection rescuers welcomed the ship. Among others, also the mayor of Bari, Vito Leccese, and the municipal councilor for Welfare, Michelangelo Cavone. Migrants will be subjected to the usual health triage. They suffered trauma injuries and burns caused by salt water and fuel.
At the moment, there are ten minors brought to the mainland. They are entrusted to social workers and subjected to the usual clinical checks. On site, the mayor of Bari Vito Leccese. "Here with us are the emergency social workers of the Municipality of Bari - he declares - who will take charge in this first phase of accompanying the minors towards the communities that will welcome them". Minors should be transported to community homes within the capital's territory.
The Municipality will also have to deal with the seven bodies on board the Life Support. The seven people who lost their lives were traveling in the hold, where they would have been poisoned by carbon monoxide. The corpses should be transported to Forensic Medicine for medical tests and for recognition. "The administration is giving all the collaboration requested by the Prefecture, because this is an operation managed entirely by the Ministry of the Interior, but they have asked for the collaboration of the Municipality of Bari which has not shied away from being an active part in this humanitarian management together with the many other institutions present here on the quay", concludes Leccese.
The disembarkation operations of the 48 refugees have been concluded. The minors - 29, including three women - were assisted by social workers from the Municipality of Bari. During their stay, they will be assigned to family homes in the capital. The remaining castaways are located in the Baggage Delivery room of the Cruise Terminal, where recognition procedures are underway. There would be some suspected cases of scabies. As for the bodies, they were transported to the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Polyclinic of Bari. Here they will be subjected to tests to establish the causes of death - carbon monoxide poisoning is suspected - and for their identification, in order to contact the families for the burials. If the search does not give results, they will be buried in an area of the Bari cemetery in Palese. The Life Support ship will remain docked at the port of Bari until August 25th before setting sail again.
The Bari Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation under the hypothesis of criminal association aimed at aiding and abetting illegal immigration after the disembarkation of the Emergency Life Support ship. The case is currently in the hands of unknown persons. In the next few hours the prosecutor on duty will order the autopsy on the bodies of the seven victims, transferred to the forensic medicine institute of the Polyclinic of Bari. The investigations on the bodies will have to establish the exact causes of the deaths, if - as suspected - due to carbon monoxide poisoning in the hold where they were located before being rescued by the Emergency volunteers. The procedures for the identification of the seven bodies will also be started.
The 57 migrants on a drifting ship were saved and landed in Lampedusa
There are 57 migrants rescued by the ship Asso venticinque, flying the Italian flag, of the Augusta Offshore fleet, which yesterday received the Alarmphone SOS for a vessel adrift about 70 miles from the Pelagie. The people originating from Burkina Faso, Chad, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Gambia, Mali, Senegal, Somalia and Sudan were then transferred to the Coast Guard patrol boat Cp324 which took them to the Papa Francesco pier in Lampedusa. They reported that they left Tajura in Libya after paying between 500 and 1,000 euros for the trip. Contrary to what Alarmphone reported, the migrants are all well, none of them were transferred to the clinic, not even for checks.
