The refugees, who had been intercepted at sea and transferred to the ship Chimera, reported to the mobile squadron of the Agrigento police authority that they had had their money and jewellery, brought with them on their journey, taken away by the Italian military. This has lead to the opening of two investigations: one at the prosecutor’s office in
Information of equal seriousness was also recounted by two citizens from
The two migrants told us that
on the third day of the voyage their vessel was joined by two large Italian
military ships and that all were then transferred aboard one of these. Upon boarding
they were requested by the military personnel to hand over all of their
personal belongings and were told that they would have them returned in due
course. The refugees were kept on board for around one hour, receiving
neither assistance nor items for their physical comfort.
Following this they were then
transferred to the other military ship (larger than the first) bearing the name “San Marco”. Once aboard they
were given water by the military personnel, issued with numbers, and individually
photographed. The personnel informed them that identification procedures were
to be carried out by the Italian police who were present in civilian clothes
but wearing ID cards visibly displayed. At this point all 230 refused to
undergo the identification procedure, however, the Italian police warned them that
they would be detained on the ship until they consented to the identification. In
particular, they responded to one elderly Syrian woman who was complaining of
hunger that she would only receive food on the condition that she consented to
being identified.
They described to us that
after some moments of tension the police officers proceeded to obtain the fingerprints of each person in
turn, making use of physical force to place the hand on the sensory pad to take
the digital fingerprints.
Following the completion of
this procedure, a team of Italian TV journalists (Rai News 24 n.d.r.) subsequently
appeared so as to get some shots of the area where the migrants had been placed
together and also the military personnel, who at which point adopted a friendly
behaviour towards the minors present there, picking them up and playing with them.
Some Syrians, finding
themselves in contact with the journalists, told the story of what had taken
place on board the first military ship but none of their reports were taken
seriously.
On the second day aboard the
second military ship, the crew on board returned their personal belongings to each
of them, but not the money or the jewellery.
They also said that during
the time aboard they had slept on the bare steel floor of the ship’s vehicle
hold.
They were not given clothes
or shoes, and no medical checks were carried out on anyone present. Among the
230 migrants, those who complained of
ill health were given only pain killers by the medical personnel upon request.
On October 25 the ship they were travelling on
docked at the port
of Augusta
They were then transferred to
Siracusa (to Randone), where they spent their first night. After this they then
left and arrived in Catania
When they were talking to us
they were still having difficulty in believing the reality of what had taken
place. They showed us a video taken with a mobile phone camera aboard their
stricken vessel showing images of joy and celebration upon seeing the Italian
Military ships. The young Somalian man repeated several times that he had loved
Italy since his childhood, that
he had supported Italy
Borderline Sicilia's Editorial Staff
