Refugees: Thousands of boat migrants reach Lampedusa: Camp overcrowded

The Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa is once again confronted with large numbers of migrant boat arrivals. Since Sunday, more than 2,000 people have reached the small island, the Ansa news agency reported.

After a period in which the arrivals of migrants on the island decreased somewhat, a kind of queue formed in front of the pier of the island’s harbor in the morning of small metal boats that wanted to dock at the harbor, as Ansa reported.

On Monday alone, around 1,900 Mediterranean migrants reached Lampedusa on 51 boats. Today, however, an overview of arrivals is still difficult. Most of the people set sail from the Tunisian coastal town of Sfax, as Ansa reported. Accordingly, they had paid smugglers between 1,000 and 5,000 Tunisian dinars (around 300 to 1,500 euros) for the passage to Europe.

Lampedusa is always overcrowded

The initial reception center on Lampedusa is overcrowded, as has been the case several times this year. The so-called hotspot inside the small island is actually only designed for around 400 people. In order to relieve the pressure on the camp, the authorities are trying to bring as many people as possible to the mainland on ferries or police ships.

Lampedusa lies between Sicily and North Africa, and the island is almost 190 kilometers away from the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax. The Ministry of the Interior in Rome counted around 116,000 people (as of September 11th) who reached Italy on boats this year – in the same period last year there were almost 63,500. Devastating boat accidents occur again and again during these highly dangerous crossings.