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MIGRANT CRISIS

Migrant pressure eases on Italian island as political tensions rise

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called on Brussels to help relieve the "unsustainable" pressure on the country, as officials transferred thousands of migrants from the tiny island of Lampedusa to Sicily on Friday.

Published: 16 September 2023 08:09 CEST
Migrants gather outside the operational centre on the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 15, 2023. The island's reception centre, built to house fewer than 400 people, was overwhelmed with men, women and children forced to sleep outside on makeshift plastic cots, many wrapped in metallic emergency blankets.
Migrants gather outside the operational centre on the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 15, 2023. The island's reception centre, built to house fewer than 400 people, was overwhelmed with men, women and children forced to sleep outside on makeshift plastic cots, many wrapped in metallic emergency blankets. Photo:  Alessandro SERRANO / AFP

The transfers followed a record surge in arrivals that has rekindled the debate over how Europe shares responsibility for asylum seekers.

Lampedusa, just 90 miles (145 kilometres) off the coast of Tunisia, has long been a landing point for migrant boats from North Africa. But this week its migration centre — built for fewer than 400 people — was overwhelmed.

Between Monday and Wednesday, around 8,500 people — more than the entire local population — arrived in 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday, according to figures from the UN migration agency.

Images of thousands of people sleeping in the open air, scaling the perimeter fence and wandering around Lampedusa town sparked anger among members of Italy’s hard-right government.

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called the arrivals an “act of war”, and on Friday, Prime Minister Meloni urged the European Union to do more to tackle the problem.

“The migratory pressure that Italy has been experiencing since the beginning of the year is unsustainable,” she said in a video message broadcast by her office on Friday.

The problem sprang, she said, from the “difficult international situation” in Africa.

She urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to visit Lampedusa, and asked European Council President Charles Michel to put the matter on the agenda of October’s EU summit.

In Lampedusa meanwhile, men, women and children lined up in the sun to take buses and vans to the port.

From there, some prepared to board ships to the larger island of Sicily, where they will be transferred to migrant processing centres.

New migrants arrive on a Guardia di Finanza ship, in the harbour of Italian island of Lampedusa, on September 15, 2023.

New migrants arrive on a Guardia di Finanza ship at the harbour of Italian island of Lampedusa, on September 15, 2023. (Photo by Alessandro SERRANO / AFP)

Hot issue

Mass migration is a key political issue in other EU capitals ahead of European Parliament elections next June.

In France, members of the far-right said the government should not allow any migrants from Lampedusa across the border — to which President Emmanuel Macron responded by calling for European solidarity.

“I consider it the responsibility of the entire EU to stand alongside Italy,” Macron said, adding that “strictly nationalist policies have their limits”.

Germany earlier this week confirmed it had stopped accepting migrants living in Italy under a European solidarity plan aimed at easing pressure on EU border nations.

It was a “signal to Italy” after Rome last year suspended EU rules on accepting migrants, a German government spokesman said Friday.

Berlin could resume taking migrants “if Italy fulfils its obligations to take back refugees”, the spokesman added.

Fights over food

Lampedusa’s migrant centre has struggled for years to cope with the arrivals, with humanitarian organisations reporting a lack of water, food and medical care.

The Italian Red Cross took over in June, promising to provide a more “dignified” welcome — but this week raised the alarm over the high numbers.

Many arrivals did not even make it inside the perimeter fence, instead camping outside.

Police had to intervene after scuffles Wednesday during the distribution of food.

“We are so many here,” said a young man from Gambia, who gave his name as Omar, as he sat in the shade waiting for a bus to the port Friday.

Migrants gather inside the operational centre called "Hotspot" on the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 14, 2023.

Migrants gather inside the operational centre on the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 14, 2023. (Photo by Alessandro SERRANO / AFP)

“Even to eat food is a problem, there are so many people, when they start to give us food, there are always people, it’s a problem… Always fighting, fighting.”

Omar said he had been travelling for six months before making it to Lampedusa and hoped to reach his brother in the Netherlands.

“It’s not easy,” he said, opening a crumpled plastic bag containing a small piece of paper with his family’s phone number written on it.

Lunch for 5,000

The Red Cross said Friday morning that 700 people had been transferred off the island with another 2,500 due to leave during the day.

On Thursday, staff and volunteers provided 5,000 meals at lunchtime and again in the evening, it said.

Although most of the migrants arriving on Lampedusa are picked up at sea by the coastguard from rickety boats, many do not survive the journey.

More than 2,000 people have died this year crossing between North Africa and Italy and Malta, according to the UN migration agency.

More than 127,000 migrants have arrived on Italy’s shores so far this year, up from more than 66,000 in the same period last year.

The numbers are still well below those of 2016, when more than 181,000 migrants arrived over the year.

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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italy joins countries calling for asylum centres outside EU

Italy is one of 15 EU member states who have sent a joint letter to the European Commission demanding a further tightening of the bloc's asylum policy, which will make it easier to transfer undocumented migrants to third countries, such as Rwanda, including when they are rescued at sea.

Published: 17 May 2024 11:59 CEST
Italy joins countries calling for asylum centres outside EU

The countries presented their joint stance in a letter dated May 15th to the European Commission, which was made public on Thursday.

It was sent less than a month before European Parliament elections across the 27-nation European Union, in which far-right anti-immigration parties are forecast to make gains.

Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania signed the letter.

In it, they ask the European Union’s executive arm to “propose new ways and solutions to prevent irregular migration to Europe”.

They want the EU to toughen its asylum and migration pact, which introduces tighter border controls and seeks to expedite the deportation of rejected asylum-seekers.

The pact, to be operational from 2026, will speed up the vetting of people arriving without documents and establish new border detention centres.

The 15 countries also want to see mechanisms to detect and intercept migrant boats and take them “to a predetermined place of safety in a partner country outside the EU, where durable solutions for those migrants could be found”.

They said it should be easier to send asylum seekers to third countries while their requests for protection are assessed.

They cited as a model a controversial deal Italy has struck with Albania, under which thousands of asylum-seekers picked up at sea can be taken to holding camps in the non-EU Balkan country as their cases are processed.

READ ALSO: Italy approves controversial Albanian migrant deal

The European Commission said it would study the letter, though a spokeswoman, Anitta Hipper, added that “all our work and focus is set now on the implementation” of the migration and asylum pact.

Differences with UK-Rwanda model

EU law says people entering the bloc without documents can be sent to an outside country where they could have requested asylum – so long as that country is deemed safe and the applicant has a genuine link with it.

That condition differentiates it from a scheme set up by non-EU Britain under which irregular arrivals will be denied the right to request asylum in the UK and sent instead to Rwanda.

Rights groups accuse the African country – ruled with an iron fist by President Paul Kagame since the end of the 1994 genocide that killed around 800,000 people – of cracking down on free speech and political opposition.

The 15 nations said they want the EU to make deals with third countries along main migration routes, citing the example of the arrangement it made with Turkey in 2016 to take in Syrian refugees fleeing war.

Camille Le Coz, associate director of the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, said: “In legal terms, these models pose many questions and are very costly in terms of resource mobilisation and at the operational level.”

The opening date for migrant reception centres in Albania set up under the deal with Italy had been delayed, she noted.

With the June 6th-9th EU elections leading to a new European Commission, the proposals put forward by the 15 countries would go into the inbox of the next commission for it to weigh them, she said.

She also noted that EU heavyweights France, Germany and Spain had not signed onto the letter.

“For certain member countries, the priority really is the implementation of the pact, and that in itself is already a huge task,” Le Coz said.

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