The vessel with 252 rescued migrants on board docked at the Manfredi pier in the port of Salerno on Monday morning (May 26). The passengers -- including 98 people under the age of 18 -- had been rescued in four different operations.
Most of them hailed from Somalia, Eritrea, Mali. There were also people from Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Egypt on board.
Most of the underage migrants unaccompanied
Of the rescued minors, only four girls and two boys were reportedly accompanied by an adult while eight girls and 84 boys were travelling alone.
The adults included 127 men and 27 women.
Three women on the ship were pregnant while others had endured abuse or had psychological problems, operators said.
Paola de Roberto, Salerno's councilor for social and youth policies, was at the port to welcome the migrants. She said that "the number of unaccompanied minors has been very high in the last landings".
A majority of the underage migrants will stay in the region, according to De Roberto. "The prefecture will take care of those over 14 while the others will be placed under the care of the municipality of Salerno. The majority of them will remain in Campania, the others will go to Molise or Puglia," the councillor said. Campania is the southwestern Italian region where Salerno is located. Molise and Puglia are neighboring regions to the north and east, respectively.
Reports of abuse against migrants before rescue
De Roberto also said that they had "heard that women, men and children have endured abuse," adding that they had "activated an anti-trafficking network in Salerno."
The prefect of Salerno, Francesco Esposito, said that more attention will be devoted to minors due to their particular vulnerability. "At the moment, we are examining the aspects purely related to healthcare, then we will look into single situations to understand whether there are people who need psychological support or further medical checkups," he said. "As in every landing, there will be victims of violence or people with health conditions they already had prior to departure or which they developed during the trip."
