Date: Friday, 04 September 2020
A few hours after the fatal accident that cost the life of a 20-year-old Eritrean migrant, Minister Lamorgese expressed the hope that these incidents will not be repeated in the future.
Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese sent a message to comment on what happened this morning in Siculiana, where a migrant lost his life after being run over by a hijacker.
"The Ministry of the Interior is committed every day to safely manage a very complex network of reception centers. Similar tragedies such as that of the death of a migrant hit by a car must no longer repeat themselves", was the warning from the owner of the Interior Ministry.
Lamorgese then addressed her "best wishes to the three policemen who were injured" due to today's accident.
In the morning today, a 20-year-old migrant from Eritrea was hit by a car on state highway 115, while fleeing from the Villa Sikania center in Siculiana (Agrigento), where he had been since August 1st.
Siculian . Twenty-year-old Eritrean tried to escape from the reception center, three policemen chasing him were injured. Investor arrested
SICULIANA (AGRIGENTO) - A migrant fleeing the Villa Sikania reception center was hit by a car and died.
He was a 20-year-old Eritrean who arrived at the facility on August 1st. Three policemen who were trying to block him were also injured because they were hit by the same car: they were transferred to the San Giovanni di Dio hospital in Agrigento. Two have suffered various traumas and bruises, while the third has a bad fracture and will have to undergo a delicate surgery. The driver, a 34-year-old local, was arrested.
The escape attempt along the SS 115, at the entrance to Siculiana, took place in the middle of the night. A group of migrants - after they had protested for the whole afternoon, with about twenty of them who had also climbed on the roof of the reception structure - managed to escape, reaching the road. To chase them, to try to block them and bring them back, the policemen who were on surveillance service at Villa Sikania.
However, the Volkswagen Touareg fell on fleeing migrants and policemen and overwhelmed them. For the Eritrean there was nothing to do, the three officers were injured. The police (also the police commissioner of Agrigento) and the carabinieri worked on the spot for the entire night and took care of the reliefs to reconstruct the dynamics of the accident. At dawn the driver was arrested and apparently he would not have stopped after the impact.
“The Ministry of the Interior is committed every day to safely manage a very complex network of reception centers. Such tragedies, such as that of the death of a migrant hit by a car, must never be repeated ”, said the Minister of the Interior, Luciana Lamorgese. "I express my closeness and express my best wishes for a speedy recovery to the three policemen who were injured during the attempted escape from the Siculiana reception center".
“A significant reduction in attendance in the center of Siculiana has already been arranged - added Lamorgese - which, in previous years, has also reached peaks of 400 migrants hosted simultaneously. There are currently 65 police and military operators involved in the surveillance of the center per shift ”.
As of yesterday, explains the ministry, 237 migrants are present in the reception center of Siculiana, among them mainly Tunisians (55), Moroccans (24) and Bengalis (44). All those present were subjected to a swab last August 31: 16 were positive and 19 nasopharyngeal examinations had an uncertain outcome. For these last migrants the swab was repeated, the outcome of which will be known today, and they were placed in solitary confinement.
For all migrants present in the structure, the Provincial Health Authority has ordered the repetition of the quarantine period. As soon as the outcome of the swabs for doubtful cases is known, positive migrants are destined to be transferred to a ferry ship, subject to the favorable opinion of the Usmaf.
