Lampedusa is again confronted with strong migration movements. About 2,500 migrants have reached the southern Italian island between Sicily and Tunisia since Sunday, authorities said. The island’s mayor calls for the deployment of the navy to deal with the attack.
At least 68 boats reached the island on Tuesday alone, which is a record. Italian media published images of numerous migrant boats waiting to land in the island’s port (see below).
More than 100,000 arrivals since the beginning of the year
All people were housed in the registration facility, which currently houses 1,501 people. Since the beginning of 2023, 115,368 migrants have arrived in Italy after their perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea; in the comparable period of 2022 there were 62,647, the Ministry of the Interior in Rome announced.
“I have been saying for weeks that this is a groundbreaking phenomenon, with figures that are no longer sustainable for our island. This Tuesday alone we will probably reach 100 boat landings,” Lampedusa Mayor Filippo Mannino said in the afternoon. He called on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government to deploy the army to stop the migrants. “I call on Prime Minister Meloni and the entire Italian government to take urgent action,” the mayor said. The flow of migrants towards Lampedusa is unprecedented.
“Impossible to provide help”
“Our small island is no longer able to cope with such a wave of migrants, the size of which exceeds the number of inhabitants itself. Against this background, it is impossible to guarantee adequate assistance to the migrants, despite enormous logistical efforts,” the mayor said. He called on the government to use naval vessels to intercept the migrant boats and take them directly to Sicily or the Italian mainland. Lampedusa can no longer accept people.
In view of the strong migration flows towards Lampedusa, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi is defending himself against the accusation that the right-wing government led by Meloni is not acting decisively enough in the fight against illegal immigration. “This government promises to limit or stop the flow of migrants, especially from North Africa, as quickly as possible through stable and lasting solutions. This is our priority. But precisely because they have to be stable, we need time for these measures. “The Ministry of the Interior agrees with the mayors when it comes to tackling these problems in a logic of fair distribution of migrants,” Piantedosi said on Tuesday.
An NGO ship sails to another port
The NGO ship Ocean Viking with 68 migrants on board is now en route to the Adriatic port of Ancona and is expected to arrive there on Thursday. The NGO SOS Mediterranée, which operates the ship, complained on social media that the ship would take four days to reach the landing port (see above).
Source: Krone
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