Italy: Migrants welcomed by volunteers at Ancona port

Rome: A reported 161 migrants reached the central Italian port of Ancona on April 22 aboard a vessel run by the NGO Solidaire. They were welcomed by some 40 volunteers from the regional chapter of the Red Cross.

Red Cross members from the Italian region of Marche took part in operations to disembark 161 people who reached the port of Ancona on Tuesday, April 22, on the humanitarian vessel Solidaire operated by the NGO of the same name. The migrants were rescued during several operations carried out over the past few days off Tripoli, Libya.

Some 40 volunteers took part in the effort, following a well-established protocol for citizens in the Marche region. Local residents around Ancona, in coordination with other associations and under the oversight of the city’s prefecture, have regularly supported arriving migrants at the port.

The 161 passengers of the humanitarian vessel included five women and 20 unaccompanied minors between the ages of 14 and 17, mainly hailing from Bangladesh as well as Egypt, Pakistan and Syria.

The Red Cross helped operations on board with doctors and nurses while deploying at the port logistics experts, social operators, language mediators and RFL (Restoring Family Links) officials to track down the migrants’ family members and acquaintances, in cooperation with other national chapters of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and with the international committee of the Red Cross.

A volunteer of the European civil service also took part in an operation that will prove key for his training.

The President of the Marche Red Cross Rosaria Del Balzo Ruiti said the organization’s protocol to welcome migrants is “consolidated thanks to years of experience, an experience that is always very moving and meaningful for the many volunteers who ask to participate and to serve.”

The disembarkation took place at a particular time, a day after Pope Francis’s death at the age of 88, said Del Balzo Ruiti. “Today, there is an element that makes everything even more meaningful — the death of Pope Francis, whose legacy to host all human beings in difficulty makes him close to every Red Cross volunteer,” commented the president.

“No human being is illegal for us. This is why we have opened our arms even wider and with even more humanity to welcome the 160 migrants, thinking about Pope Francis and his ideas, which we feel are close to us,” she concluded.