Amy Mek
Despite Italy closing its ports to migrants due to the Chinese coronavirus, an inflatable boat carrying 77 potentially infected male migrants arrived at the Sicilian port of Portopalo. The frustrated mayor, Gaetano Montoneri, pled to his superiors in the region for help with finding the sub-Saharan African illegals housing.
Sicily is the main point of arrival for the majority of migrants flooding into Italy. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Italian government ruled that a national emergency blocking refugees and migrants would be in effect until July 31.
Despite the temporary ban, the migrants were able to penetrate Portopalo’s port on Easter, ditch their inflatable boat and scatter across the territory. Concerned Italian citizens reported the sightings of the illegals to authorities who were able to apprehend them. Italian citizens are worried that migrants could become a new vehicle of infection for the already suffering country.
The Mayor assured citizens that the migrants each had their temperatures taken and were swabbed to rule out contagion from coronavirus. He also promised police would begin patrolling their shores for any more potential illegals.
In the following RAIR Foundation USA exclusively translated video, Mayor Montoneri illustrates the invasion in Portopalo while the the migrants are detained behind him:
Update: 75 migrants have been placed in a holding facility and put into quarantine in the Pantanelli district of Syracuse. Two migrants had to be admitted to a hospital due to injuries they endured while on the rubber boat.
Transcript: many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation:
Good day to everybody, fellow citizens and everybody [unintelligible] listening at this time. I am Gaetano Montoneri. Maybe you don’t recognize me in this outfit, unfortunately an emergency outfit. Today, it’s about 11:15 Easter Day.
I am at the port here at Portopalo, because this morning at about 5 o’clock [unintelligible] there was a landing of illegals. A landing of illegals occurred today at the point of our port of Portopalo at the… Ponente pier.
Why this communication? It means we have just found these illegals who landed in our territory aboard a rubber dinghy that was abandoned at the, let’s say, point of the port.
So here we are. I have already told the Prefect to the Assessor, Assessor Razza, and to those on duty, that at Portopalo we categorically do not have any suitable structure to place in isolation 75 people whom we are handling.
Sir, tell us where they will be taken, but this, by today…
RAIR Foundation
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