On Wednesday, twenty-eight migrants that had been recently rescued at sea tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Governor of Sicily. The newly registered cases are the largest cluster among newly arrived migrants to Italy.
This further complicates Italy’s efforts to manage the waves of migration arriving from Libya via the Mediterranean. The migrants were being held on a ship off the Sicilian town of Porto Empedocle.
A mandatory quarantine has been put in place for those being rescued at sea. Sicily’s Governor, Nello Musumeci, stated that the result of these tests confirmed he was right to demand special, at-sea quarantine measures for migrants.
Such measures are meant to prevent new virus clusters from forming in Italy, which was recently the European epicenter of the pandemic.
Right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini – who implemented a hard-line, anti-migrant policy while serving as Italy’s Interior Minister – said the fact that migrants tested positive for the Coronavirus proved they were a threat to Italy’s national security.
In a series of tweets, Salvini pushed back at critics who accused him of racism. He blamed Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government for seeking to soften Italy’s migrant policy.
“While Conte takes apart security legislation and opens our ports, NGO’s bring COVID-19 migrants to Italy. Public health is at risk.” he tweeted.
The result of the tests arrived during a visit by a Parliamentary commission to Porto Empedocle that aimed to check on the well being of migrants.
Italian officials have predicted that a new wave of migrants might set out this year given the easing of Italy’s health emergency restrictions and the resumption of humanitarian rescue ships in the Mediterranean.