Illegal migrants quarantined aboard the Moby Zaza ferry after landing in Italy to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus are estimated to be costing taxpayers over 4,000 euros per month each.
The ferry, which is to be placed two or three miles offshore from the Sicilian town of Porto Empedocle after around a month of pleas by the mayor of Lampedusa Salvatore Martello, houses around 250 people at a time including 35 medical staff to aid the migrants who will be made to engage in quarantine measures in order to make sure they do not have or spread the Chinese virus.
Operations aboard the vessel are expected to begin next Monday but the true costs of renting the ship were not revealed until Alessandro Pagano, a member of Matteo Salvini’s League, revealed that the government had given upwards of a million euros to the Moby Line company to rent the ferry from them, Il Giornale reports.
“The Moby Line company will receive between the €900,000 and €1.2 million: the sum of €4,210 per month for illegal immigrants embarked,” he said.
“We are not talking about a third-hand dinghy, but of a ship equipped with a self-service restaurant, pizzeria, ice cream parlour, pub with special wine assortment, play area and video room, double or quadruple cabins with services and even luxury suites. All this while Italian families and businesses are on their knees due to the serious economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added.
Italy has seen a new surge in illegal migrant arrivals in recent weeks despite the Wuhan coronavirus lockdown measures put in place by the government of Prime minister Giuseppe Conte.
The island of Lampedusa has once again seen hundreds of new arrivals which threaten to overwhelm the small island community and Italian police in the north of the country have complained that Slovenian police and border guards have allowed migrants to cross into Italy as well.
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