Rome, September 12 (EFE). – The Italian island of Lampedusa (south), the closest to the African continent, recorded a record number of landings today: since midnight there were more than 2,800 migrants on board about 70 boats. The coast guard rescued 800 people in the Mediterranean.
According to local media, this is the largest number of boats that have arrived in Lampedusa in a single day, which is why the mayor has called on the government of the far-right Giorgia Meloni to take “immediate measures” such as the intervention of the army.
For its part, the ship Diciotti, owned by the Italian authorities, provided assistance in the afternoon to almost 800 people in the Mediterranean who will be taken to other ports to avoid further congestion in Lampedusa, whose identification center only has a capacity of 400.
“We have around 2,800 people at the access point and another 300 at the Favarolo dock (of Lampedusa) waiting to get off the boats, accompanied by the patrol boats of the financial guard and the captain’s office,” said the police commissioner of the Sicilian city of Agrigento, Emanuele Ricifari, in statements to local media.
The Commissioner recalled that 4,500 people were helped on the island this summer, especially with weekend arrivals, so the aid teams “held up quite well”.
However, the mayor of Lampedusa, Filippo Mannino, asked the Italian executive for immediate help.
“This has never been seen before, with dozens and dozens of small boats being escorted by or attached to the rescue units outside the harbor and others managing to arrive directly,” he said.
“Today we will probably reach 100 landings, numbers that are no longer sustainable on this island. We need the defense to intervene,” he implored.
According to initial data, at least 70 boats have reached the coast, which would mark an “unprecedented” record, just five days after 65 boats disembarked in Lampedusa port.
Among the people who have arrived in Lampedusa are women and minors, although the majority are adult men from sub-Saharan Africa who left the Tunisian city of Sfax and paid between one thousand and five thousand Tunisian dinars for the passage.
A few weeks ago, the mayor of the small island criticized the government’s handling of the migration phenomenon and called for new ways to combat it, since the emergency declaration signed by the executive in April did not lead to an improvement in management.
“It is obvious that the migration phenomenon has exploded in the hands of the government. The declaration of a state of emergency has not brought any concrete results for Lampedusa and none of the problems that we have been denouncing for years have been stopped,” he accused the media.
So far this year, 116,028 migrants have landed in Italy, more than double the number in the same period last year (63,498), according to official Interior Ministry figures updated on September 11.
Faced with this wave, Meloni, who came to power in last October’s election campaign denouncing his predecessors’ immigration management, has often resorted to the help of humanitarian ships, although a controversial decree initially limited their rescue operations. EFE
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