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Since the beginning of the year, the number of migrant arrivals has jumped 300% in Italy. In Calabria, civil protection teams are trying to coordinate the influx of newcomers. Reporting.
Over the first four months of the year, the number of migrant arrivals increased by 300% in Italy. It is the south of the country that is on the front line of this migration crisis. The small port of Roccella Ionica, 6,000 inhabitants, has to manage hundreds of arrivals at the same time. That evening, the emergency reception center run by the Red Cross was full. All leaving from Libya, migrants were intercepted after 7 days of wandering at sea. At 16, a young man made the trip alone from Pakistan. “I came to Italy because I was not safe in my country”he confides.
A deadly shipwreck
To communicate, the volunteers manage with the means at hand. There is no interpreter, just phone apps. “All these young people make me sad. […] The little we give them, they are so grateful”, is moved Arturo Bianco, a civil protection volunteer. However, not everyone is lucky enough to arrive alive in Italy. In Cutro, on February 26, 94 people lost their lives and 80 survived. A total of 34 miners were found dead.