Italy deploys soldiers to town housing quarantined migrants
Italy deployed dozens of soldiers to a town in Calabria to patrol apartment buildings where rescued migrants who tested positive for coronavirus have been placed under quarantine, before announcing it was moving the migrants to Rome.
The decision follows residents’ protests in Amantea, in the province of Cosenza, where 13 people from Bangladesh were moved to after arriving in the coastal town of Roccella Jonica last week and testing positive for the virus.
The authorities’ decision to place the migrants under quarantine in apartments in Amantea situated next to residential buildings prompted residents to block a nearby major road in protest that the new arrivals could cause an outbreak.
In response, the authorities deployed a small military contingent to patrol the buildings to ensure no one leaves isolation.
“The soldiers will not allow the migrants to leave the welcome centres,” reads a note from the prefecture of Cosenza. “Only medical personnel will be allowed to enter.” However, authorities did not specify whether another reason for the military presence was to protect migrants from the protests.
“I share their concern,” the governor of the Calabria region, Jole Santelli, said of the protesters in an interview with Sky TG24 TV. She asked the government to quarantine or isolate migrants on boats moored offshore, which happened recently off the coast of Sicily.
However, the decision to deploy the soldiers did not stop the residents’ protests. And on Tuesday afternoon authorities announced that they were transferring the migrants to a military hospital in Rome.
Related: Coronavirus brings tension and prejudice to Italy's beaches
In Ragusa, Sicily, 11 migrants who arrived on Monday tested positive the following day for coronavirus, while in Porto Empedocle, in the province of Agrigento, 28 infected migrants were placed under quarantine on a ferry moored off the coast.
In late June, the town of Mandragone, in Caserta, was declared a “red zone” and sealed off to prevent the spread of the virus after 49 people tested positive. The news sparked clashes between Bulgarian nationals in the sealed-off area, who wanted to leave to work on local farms, and Italian residents who wanted the zone to be respected. The authorities sent an army contingent to help keep the situation under control.
