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IMMIGRATION

Beachgoers make human chain to save migrants

Holidaymakers in Sicily rallied together on Thursday to save 160 boat migrants, by creating a human chain into the sea.

Published: 16 August 2013 11:52 CEST
Beachgoers make human chain to save migrants
There were around 50 young children on the boat. Screenshot: Repubblica TV

A swimmer alerted the coast guard to the boat which arrived at the shore of Morghella beach, Syracuse, La Repubblica reported.

A number of pregnant women and around 50 young children were on board, the newspaper said.

While the coast guard came to the rescue, beachgoers waded into the water and formed a human chain to help the migrants ashore.

A video (below) shows the new arrivals climbing into a rescue boat, before locals help them through the waves.

The same day Italy’s interior minister, Angelino Alfano, said that nearly 9,000 migrants had arrived in Italy between July 1st and August 10th this year.

More than 24,000 migrants arrived on Italy’s shores during 2012, the minister said on Thursday.

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IMMIGRATION

France ‘will not welcome migrants’ from Lampedusa: interior minister

France "will not welcome migrants" from the island, Gérald Darmanin has insisted

Published: 20 September 2023 09:06 CEST
France 'will not welcome migrants' from Lampedusa: interior minister

France will not welcome any migrants coming from Italy’s Lampedusa, interior minister Gérald Darmanin has said after the Mediterranean island saw record numbers of arrivals.

Some 8,500 people arrived on Lampedusa on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration, prompting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to travel there Sunday to announce an emergency action plan.

According to Darmanin, Paris told Italy it was “ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations”, giving the
example of Ivory Coast and Senegal.

But France “will not welcome migrants” from the island, he said, speaking on French television on Tuesday evening.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Italy’s EU partners to share more of the responsibility.

The recent arrivals on Lampedusa equal more than the whole population of the tiny Italian island.

The mass movement has stoked the immigration debate in France, where political parties in the country’s hung parliament are wrangling over a draft law governing new arrivals.

France is expected to face a call from Pope Francis for greater tolerance towards migrants later this week during a high-profile visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, where the pontiff will meet President Emmanuel Macron and celebrate mass before tens of thousands in a stadium.

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