Sicily Governor says island ‘swamped’ by migrant landings; Tension at Lampedusa hotspot
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Sicily Governor Renato Schifani on Monday denounced the emergency situation on the island region, saying in the last month it has been “swamped” by the arrival of migrants and refugees by sea.
“The emergency exists, we have been experiencing it in Sicily for a month already, since we have been ‘swamped’ by landings,” Schifani told Tgcom24.
Schifani said that “thousands of people have invaded the Lampedusa hotspot, which can only accommodate a few hundred migrants”.
“The region has done its part and lent a hand, ensuring delivery of blankets, shoes, food in cooperation with the Interior Ministry,” he added.
In recent weeks the reception facilities on the tiny southern Sicilian island of Lampedusa have been struggling to keep pace with the arrival of migrants and refugees arriving autonomously or rescued from boats in distress in the central Mediterranean.
The Peluso ship on Monday arrived in the port of Catania carrying 201 of approximately 600 migrants rescued the day earlier in Maltese search and rescue (SAR) waters, some 170 miles south of the coast of Sicily.
Italy’s newly appointed commissioner for the state of emergency on migrants, Prefect Valerio Valenti, will visit the island on Tuesday to try to work out how to relieve the pressure including by stepping up the transfer of new arrivals from Lampedusa to mainland Sicily and other parts of the country.
Two injured in fight at Lampedusa hotspot
Meanwhile, two migrants sustained mild injuries after a fight broke out between Tunisians and Ivorians at the hotspot in Lampedusa late Sunday afternoon.
The pair, reportedly aged 17 and 18, received stitches for cuts to the face and chest at the local hospital before being returned to the reception centre in Contrada Imbriacola.
The Lampedusa hotspot has been under major pressure in recent weeks following a significant uptick in the arrival of migrants and refugees to the island by sea.
The number of people hosted at the centre has on occasion topped 2,000 against an official capacity of around 450 as transfers of migrants and refugees off the tiny central Mediterranean island have struggled to keep pace with new arrivals.
Some of the 600 migrants rescued on a trawler some 100 miles of the coast of Sicily arrive in the port of Catania, Italy, 12 April 2023. The vessel was escorted by the ‘Nave Peluso’ of the Coast Guard on the same day after over 200 people rescued at sea also landed in Catania and Messina on two other Coast Guard vessels. The Italian government on 11 April called a state of emergency on all the national territory following the exceptional rise in migrant flows across the Mediterranean. EPA-EFE/ORIETTA SCARDINO
