A fishing boat with 573 migrants on board landed this Monday on the Italian island of Lampedusa after being rescued in the Mediterranean by the Coast Guard, while traveling between Libya and Europe.
The rescued group, made up of four women and two minors, was transferred to the Lampedusa immigrant reception center.
The center had been empty since Friday, as the last migrant disembarkation in Lampedusa took place five days ago, on November 22.
That day, a shipwreck that had already occurred in the waters of the Sicilian island caused the death of a 26-year-old woman from the Ivory Coast. The remaining 46 people on board the sunken ship – from sub-Saharan African countries such as Mali and Ivory Coast – were rescued and taken to the port of Lampedusa.
This sinking occurred just over 24 hours after another, in which a boat carrying 51 people sank off Capo Ponente, causing the death of a two-year-old girl and the disappearance of eight other people.
The arrival of the 46 survivors of the shipwreck on November 22 brings to 483 the number of migrants and refugees who arrived on the island in nine different landings.
They were joined by 88 people from Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone and Gambia, who were taken from two boats carrying 39 and 49 people, respectively.
Last Wednesday morning, 1,283 people were in the Lampedusa reception center, including 103 unaccompanied minors. However, these irregular immigrants were transferred to other regions.
Lampedusa is often the first port of call for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe via precarious boats sailing from North Africa.
The island has been in the center of international attention in recent months due to the large increase in the number of boats carrying migrants disembarking there.
Italy is crossed by the so-called Central Mediterranean route, one of the deadliest migratory routes, which leaves Libya, Algeria and Tunisia towards Europe, in particular towards the island of Lampedusa.
Since the beginning of the year and until a week ago, 150,777 migrants and refugees arrived in Italy by sea, an increase of 60% compared to the same period in 2022, according to data from the Italian Ministry of the Interior. Of this total, around 70% landed on Lampedusa.
Source: TSF
