Yet another (attempted) exodus to the south. The president of the Sicily Region denounced what happened yesterday afternoon, March 22, In Musumeci:
“I have just been told that many unauthorized people are disembarking from Calabria in Messina – the Governor wrote around midnight on his Facebook page – It is not possible and I do not accept that this happens. We Sicilians are not cannon fodder!”.
For the third time in a few weeks, thousands of people have decided to return to the island. Too bad that Sicily - at least formally - is armored since last March 16th, the day in which the Minister of Transport De Micheli signed a decree which provides for the suspension of connections and ordinary transport of people to and from Sicily.
However, since the afternoon of Sunday 22 March, in Villa San Giovanni (Calabria), there have been long queues to get on the few remaining ferries that cross the strait, prompting Musumeci to ask for more controls from the Prefect of Messina. It should be emphasized that shortly before thousands of motorists queued up, the Government had issued an ordinance that forbids citizens to move from the municipality in which they are located. A decision that obviously was not enough.
The March 24 Musumeci has also decided to address the Minister of the Interior Lamorgese: “You are taking on a grave responsibility in frustrating the efforts and sacrifices of millions of Sicilians. At the landing stages of Calabria no one supervises compliance with your decrees. I cannot allow such irresponsibility on the part of the national government towards Sicily".
Strict controls are seen in the stations. Yesterday afternoon, Polfer agents checked passengers departing from Milan's central station from which the two Frecciarossa trains depart for Naples and Salerno, the only two "trains for the south" left active. In fact, only 120 passengers managed to get on board, while many more were turned away. Checks also in the arrival stations. In central Naples, checks were activated on the arrival of the three high-speed trains Turin-Naples, Venice-Naples and Milan-Salerno Polfer personnel, reports Ansa, took care of verifying the existence of the reasons justifying the movement of individual passengers and the compliance of the certifications presented. Staff of Rfi (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana) instead took care of measuring the body temperature of passengers using thermoscanners, diverting those who recorded a body temperature above 37,3 degrees to the doctors present in the station.
