  230307A is the second brightest gamma ray burst detected in more than 50
years of observations and is located in the direction of the Magellanic Bridge.
Despite its long duration, it is most likely the result of the compact merger
of a binary ejected from a galaxy in the local universe (redshift z=0.065). Our
XMM-Newton observation of its afterglow at 4.5 days shows a power-law spectrum
with photon index $\Gamma =1.73 \pm0.10$, unabsorbed flux $F_{0.3-10\,\rm
keV}=(8.8\pm0.5)\times 10^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ and no absorption in
excess of that produced in our Galaxy and in the Magellanic Bridge. We derive a
limit of $N_{\rm H}^{\rm HOST} < 5\times 10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$ on the absorption
at the GRB redshift, which is a factor $\sim\,$5 below the value measured
during the prompt phase. We searched for the presence of dust scattering rings
with negative results and set an upper limit of the order of $A_V<0.05$ on the
absorption from dust in the Magellanic Bridge.
