A hundred migrants managed to escape from the identification center in Porto Empedocle, in Sicily (southern Italy), to which they were transferred after arriving in Lampedusa, which was overcrowded due to the wave of arrivals in recent days.
In Porto Empedocle, in the province of Agrigento, more than a thousand immigrants have been overcrowded since Sunday in a center that is not prepared for such a number and from which they are constantly trying to escape, Italian media report cited by EFE agency.
At least a hundred people managed to leave the facilities and are being searched by the police in this city, one of the largest reception centers for immigrants since Lampedusa, and which this Monday no longer receives people, according to the press.
There are currently 1,104 people in the Lampedusa reception center, after the arrival of a single boat with 33 Tunisians since midnight, compared to the more than seven thousand that the facility received in recent days.
In the last few hours the center has been emptying, with continuous transfers. This morning, a Navy ship transported 600 immigrants to Catania, also in Sicily, who were transferred to the San Giuseppe La Rena vaccination center, provided by the municipality.
In the next few hours, the “Geo Barents”, the Doctors Without Borders ship that rescued 471 migrants in several rescues in the central Mediterranean, will also arrive at the port of Brindisi, in Apulia.
After the visit, on Sunday, to Lampedusa of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, together with the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, will arrive in Rome this Monday to discuss the issue of migration.
According to Italian media, before his arrival, Darmanin explained that “help” will be offered to Italy to defend its borders, but reiterated that France will not take care of migrants arriving in Lampedusa.
“The number of immigrants on the island is greater than the number of inhabitants”
TO TSFThe director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, André Costa Jorge, considered that the “big news” in this migratory crisis is the visit of Ursula von der Leyen, “at a time when the number of migrants on the island is greater than the number of inhabitants”.
“It should be the European Union that chooses who enters the EU,” he said, adding that a “responsibility sharing mechanism” is necessary.
“Easy and dubious solutions must be avoided. For example, agreements with countries like Libya or Tunisia or other countries that do not guarantee the safety and protection of immigrants,” he stated.
As for Portugal, André Costa Jorge recognized the progress made, but recalled that there is still a long way to go: “It has been one of the countries that has shown itself available (…), but I must remember that we have not met not even with half the quota that Portugal was supposed to receive.”
News updated at 1:57 p.m.
Source: TSF
