On Wednesday, a total of 460 migrants and refugees landed on Lampedusa in 14 separate groups. Meanwhile in New York, PM Giorgia Meloni told the United Nations General Assembly, “I will not allow Italy to become Europe’s refugee camp”.
As of 5pm today, 460 migrants and refugees landed on Lampedusa. The number included 40 people intercepted directly on the island.
On Wednesday morning, 511 new arrivals were transferred off the island by ferry to the Sicilian port of Porto Empedocle where they were due to arrive in the evening.
Regular transfers from Lampedusa resumed on Monday after a problem of overcrowding at the tent camp set up in Porto Empedocle to receive migrants and refugees arriving from the island was resolved.
Italy won’t be “Europe’s refugee camp”
PM Giorgia Meloni said a surge in migrant-boat arrivals to the island of Lampedusa puts Italy under “unsustainable pressure”.
In New York, she dismissed criticism of the Memorandum of Understanding the EU has signed with Tunisia. The objective is for cooperation in stopping human traffickers using its coasts to launch migrant-boat departures.
Meloni was instrumental in bringing about the agreement. “It’s important the memorandum with Tunisia is taken forward,” she said. “It is a model to use with other nations too”.
The premier said there was “great attention and awareness” about the migrant situation and “a lot of solidarity. “The problem is to see when, and to what degree, that solidarity will become concrete acts,” she added. “That’s what I am interested in now”.
Pope says problem cannot be tackled alone
On Sunday, the Pope said the challenge posed by the migrant emergency cannot be tackled by countries on their own. “The phenomenon of migration is a challenge that is not easy to address, as we have seen from the news of recent days,” the pope said in his Angelus address on Sunday.
“But it is one which must be faced together, as it is essential for everyone’s future, which will be prosperous only if it is built on fraternity, with human dignity, especially for the most needy, placed first”.
