Some 1,400 migrants arrived in the last 24 hours on the Italian island of Lampedusa, bringing the number of people housed in the reception center to more than 2,200, it was announced this Sunday.
The disembarkation of migrants in Lampedusa continues without interruption, averaging more than 1,000 per day. During the night of Saturday, 485 migrants arrived aboard 11 boats and, during the day, there were 22 more landings on the island, for a total of 947 people, local media reported.
On board the boats, located by the Italian Coast Guard and the Italian Financial Guard, were between 33 and 55 migrants, including women and children, who explained that they had left Sfax, in Tunisia, and that they were originally from Benin, Costa of Ivory. Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gambia, Mali, Guinea, Senegal and Nigeria.
In the island’s reception center, a few kilometers from the North African coast, there are already some 2,200 immigrants, including 800 unaccompanied minors, and despite successive transfers to other locations, this space, which has a capacity for barely 400 people, it has not been emptied. .
Meanwhile, the Doctors Without Borders ship “Geo Barents” rescued 282 people in seven operations in the space of a few hours and is now waiting for the Italian authorities to grant it a port to disembark them.
The humanitarian ship “Rise Above”, belonging to the German non-governmental organization “Mission Lifeline”, with 77 migrants on board, including 10 women, a small child and a baby, is heading towards the port of Vibo Valentia, in Calabria.
According to the latest report from Frontex, the European border control and coast guard agency, it is estimated that arrivals in the central Mediterranean have increased by 140% in the last six months and 85% in June alone.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, traveled to Tunisia this Monday as part of the dialogue for the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with the President, Kais Saied, which contains an important point on immigration control.
According to the latest data from July 14 provided by the Italian Ministry of the Interior, this year 75,065 migrants arrived on the country’s shores, while in the same period of 2022, 31,920 were registered.
Source: TSF
