The Italian island of Lampedusa has seen a record number of illegal migrant arrivals with over a hundred boats arriving on the island on Tuesday, September 12th, bringing as many as 5,000 illegals to an island whose population is just around 6,000 people.
A total of 110 boats landed on the island, which lies between Sicily and Tunisia, as the deputy mayor of the island, Attilio Lucia, likened the scenes to an invasion saying, “These numbers lead me to think of an invasion rather than a migratory phenomenon. I feel like saying ‘enough’,” the newspaper Il Giornale reports.
The boats are said to have departed from the Tunisian city of Sfax, a common hub for illegals and people traffickers looking to reach Italy, and videos were taken last weekend showing boats departing the Tunisian port city.
Videos of the boats arriving with cheering migrants on board were also published on social media as many users echoed Deputy Mayor Lucia, stating the scenes resembled an invasion.
The record-breaking number of arrivals has completely overwhelmed the small island, which has a migrant reception facility, known as a hot spot, run by the Red Cross, meant to accommodate just 400 or so people.
After the arrivals on Tuesday, the total number of migrants on the island is estimated to be just under 7,000, more than the entire population of Lampedusa itself.
The high numbers have also caused tension on the island as migrants protested during the distribution of food on Wednesday, September 13th, and many tried to escape the searing temperatures on the island.
The Italian Red Cross said in a statement,
Moments of tension in the Lampedusa hotspot this afternoon caused by some guests during the distribution of meals. The Red Cross operators are trying to continue doing their job thanks to the intervention of the police forces.
At the moment the guests in the hotspot are over 7,000 and it is expected that between today and tomorrow, 5,000 will be transferred. Undoubtedly the high number of people present compared to normal capacity is causing management problems even if caused by a small number of people. We hope that the situation will come under control as soon as possible.
The record number of arrivals is just part of a much larger trend of growing numbers of illegal arrivals to Italy through the Central Mediterranean migrant route this year.
According to statistics from the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR, as of September 10th, over 115,000 illegals have arrived in Italy, already surpassing last year’s total of 105,131 and approaching 2017’s figure of 119,369.
The number is over double that of the previous year, the European Union border agency Frontex noted last month and reported that migrant traffic in the Central Mediterranean now accounts for around half of all of the illegal entries in the European Union overall.
Despite Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni promising to be tough on illegal immigration, numbers have exploded on her watch and while the Italian PM has negotiated deals with Tunisia and the European Union on the issue, the numbers continue to rise.
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who reduced illegal arrivals while serving as Interior Minister in a previous Italian government, on Wednesday called for new decrees to tackle the issue. Salvini is facing trial next month for defending Italy’s borders from a migrant taxi NGO and risking up to 15 years in prison.
“The present offers us great opportunities, the future depends on the audacity of all of us,” Salvini said and added,
The images coming from Lampedusa tell me that the Europe that does nothing to defend the borders and security of our country cannot be the Europe of the coming years, so I refuse to think of a socialist Europe that deals with filling us with electric cars but does nothing for safety.
