Migrants: 10 landings and about 200 migrants arrive in Lampedusa – Chronicle

The island’s hotspot is filling up again. Almost 500 foreigners inside. Mayor Martello: “They promised us a second quarantine ship”

A few days of wind and rough sea had slowed departures from Libya and Tunisia, but in the last 48 hours they are over 200 migrants who reached the island of Lampedusa independently, aboard over 10 rubber boats and small boats. They have all been transferred to the Contrada Imbriacola hotspost where the numbers then rise again. A week ago it was almost emptied mainly thanks to the quarantine ship Azzurra. Now, lets know the mayor Totò Martello, again hosts nearly 500 people.

“The situation is under control for now, another quarantine ship could arrive tomorrow evening”, specifies the mayor who attends at the same time the cancellations of tourists. “The island is now deserted,” he adds.

in the meantime Alarm Phone – which manages an emergency number for migrants in difficulty in the Mediterranean – reports two other boats on their way to Italy and Malta.

The Ministry of the Interior disclosed the total numbers of arrivals in Italy in the last year. From 1 August 2019 to 30 July last we are talking about over 21 thousand migrants, almost 150% more than in the previous 12 months. Data that confirm both the large increase in foreigners coming from Tunisia and the prevalence, in recent months, of autonomous landings. They are 75% of the total. The effects of the political and social crisis in the North African country have pushed the minister Lamorgese to fix a new visit to Tunis for Monday.

This time together with two European commissioners to try to raise awareness of the European Union on the issue. In fact, the transfers of asylum seekers are proceeding slowly. After the end of the lockdown, only 189 of them reached another European country: almost exclusively Germany and France

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