The flow of migrants to Lampedusa is decreasing on Friday, with Italian authorities transferring to Sicily and the continent thousands of people who arrived by sea this week on this Mediterranean island near the North African coast.
• Also read: Record influx of migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa
French President Emmanuel Macron defended a “duty of European solidarity” with Italy on the same day, while Berlin has just suspended voluntary reception of asylum seekers from that country due to “strong migratory pressure” and Rome’s refusal to apply European agreements.
However, Germany also seems willing to help Rome on the condition that the resettlements provided for in the “voluntary European solidarity mechanism” can be carried out “again at any time if Italy meets its obligation to take back the refugees” in accordance with EU rules, a German government spokesman assured on Friday.
Located less than 150 km from the Tunisian coast, Lampedusa is one of the first stops for migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Every summer, tens of thousands of them set out to sea on often dilapidated boats to make this dangerous crossing, in which more than 2,000 of them have died since January.
However, the situation has never been so tense in Lampedusa, where, according to the Interior Ministry, the majority of the 11,000 migrants who have arrived on Italian territory since Monday have arrived, overwhelming the reception center managed by the Italian Red Cross. (CRI) and whose capacity is 400 places.
AFP
Federico Fossi, UNHCR spokesman, told AFP that 8,512 people landed on the island between Monday and Wednesday, more than the local population.
Due to the lack of space in the reception center, hundreds of people were forced to sleep outside on the streets, sometimes benefiting from the generosity of the population to bring them water and food.
A young Gambian named Omar sits in the shade and waits for a bus. “It’s not easy here,” he sighs. “There are so many of us here (…) that even food is a problem,” he explains, saying that after six months of a dangerous journey through the Sahel, he wanted to return to his brother in the Netherlands.
In total, more than 127,000 migrants have landed on Italian shores since the beginning of the year, almost twice as many as in the same period in 2022.
AFP
However, the numbers are still no higher than in 2016, when more than 181,000 people, including many Syrians fleeing the war, reached Italy.
These arrivals triggered numerous political reactions both in Italy and in neighboring countries.
The situation in Lampedusa shows that “strictly nationalist approaches have their limits,” Emmanuel Macron said on Friday and did not want to “leave Italy alone with what it is experiencing today,” without saying whether France would welcome migrants from Lampedusa .
Relations between these two countries were strained in November 2022 when Italy refused to accept the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking and the 230 migrants on board, urging Paris to let it dock while denouncing Rome’s “unacceptable” behavior .
AFP
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, head of the post-fascist Fratelli d’Italia party, criticizes other European countries for not doing their part to welcome migrants while Italy is at the forefront.
“Italy’s actions alone are not enough,” reiterated the head of Italian diplomacy, Antonio Tajani, who will soon visit Paris and Berlin, on Friday.
In fact, Europeans “must not leave Italy alone in the face of what it is experiencing,” stressed Macron, pointing to “the responsibility of the entire European Union.”
France and Italy want to work together at the European level to strengthen “emigration prevention” and “fight against smugglers,” said French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Friday.
Matteo Piantedosi, his Italian counterpart, spoke to him on Friday and it was agreed that “above all, a rapid strengthening of operational cooperation” with the countries of origin is necessary in order to “block” new crossings.
The EU and Tunisia signed an agreement in July in return for financial aid to this North African country, which is experiencing serious economic difficulties.
Matteo Salvini’s Anti-Immigration League, a member of the ruling coalition, has been grappling with this agreement in recent hours. For MP Andrea Crippa, “the Tunisian government has obviously declared war on Italy” by allowing a large number of boats to leave in a short time.