Among the migrants, two alleged smugglers were also arrested and transferred to the barracks for judicial authority.
The ship's captain Etna, captain of the vessel Martino Baldari: "The rescue operations as on every occasion are very delicate. We are dealing with boats that are not brand new and are overcrowded, consider that these boats are approved for a dozen people and instead we find on board two hundred, three hundred, we have come to find on board up to six hundred people. You can then imagine what the state of buoyancy of these units is, what the delicacy of these units is, you have to be very careful both in the approach phases and during the entire landing / boarding phase which sometimes lasts many hours.
During the transfer there was no problem - says Captain Baldari - people are welcomed with great humanity, with great responsibility on the part of everyone, not only on the part of the crew but as you know on board my ship there are doctors of the Cisom, of the RAVA foundation, of the Ministry of Health, the Red Cross nurses, all people who are used to dealing with these people are trained to deal professionally with these people and therefore placing themselves in a delicate manner and also of great psychological support to these people , and there is a normally very human answer, very quiet and everyone was very good and very happy to have been saved.
On board these boats and then even before, during the journey, life for these people is very difficult. All suffer the inclement weather during the journey so they do not arrive in optimal conditions. Fortunately, in the last operation we conducted, there were no people in serious health conditions. There are people who have problems with scabies, there is someone who has some problems with walking because he has some bruises but nothing serious ”.
As for the smugglers, Captain Baldari replied: "We always try to make a contribution to the authorities so that they can somehow identify them and fight the phenomenon that must be fought with all possible and imaginable means. The magistrates will tell us what will come out in the coming days ".
Salvatore Pappalardo
