The small Italian island of Lampedusa, whose main reception center is saturated in the midst of the pandemic, once again welcomed in the night from Saturday to Sunday nearly 370 new migrants, an "unprecedented" situation which prompted its mayor to call for a "general strike" to make the government react. "Let us lower the shutters, the national government continues to maintain a fearful silence", launched Toto Martello, in a statement.
Since Friday, around thirty small boats, mostly from the Tunisian coast, had already reached the island by disembarking some 500 migrants, according to the Italian press. Referring to "an unprecedented situation", the mayor of Lampedusa announced Monday the convening of representatives of professional associations on the island to declare "a general strike". “If a fishing boat of this size with hundreds of people arrives here and no one notices, it means that there are no controls in the Mediterranean. But what do military ships do? We are not at war, why are they not used for security interventions at sea and to transfer migrants? He wonders.
"We are in danger"
The Lampedusa emergency reception center is already housing 1,160 migrants, ten times its maximum capacity. He is "overwhelmed beyond what is humanly possible to endure," said the mayor. He also denounced the fact that the army was struggling to prevent migrants from escaping, despite strict protocols linked to the coronavirus epidemic. Fearing for the sanitary situation of the island, the mayor warned: "People in danger must be helped, but humanitarian reception needs rules because here, now, we are in danger".
Sicily recorded 34 new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, involving 4 migrants, bringing the number of people currently affected by the virus to 1,114. The president of the Sicily region, Nello Musumeci, on Sunday demanded from the government, on his Facebook account, a meeting of “humanitarian and health crisis”. “Lampedusa can't do it anymore. Sicily cannot continue to pay for the indifference of Brussels and the silence of Rome ”, thundered the elected representative, president of the region thanks to an alliance of the right and the far right. He had issued a decree a week ago to close all reception centers for migrants in Sicily (of which Lampedusa is part), denouncing untenable hygienic conditions with the Covid-19 epidemic, an approach rejected by the Italian justice.
Migrants rescued at sea
The Italian coast guard also transported 49 people deemed fragile, mainly women and children, to Lampedusa on Saturday, who had been rescued in the Mediterranean by the Louise Michel, chartered by the street artist Banksy. The other 150 passengers of the Louise Michel were all transferred on Saturday evening to the Sea-Watch 4, which now totals 350 passengers, some of whom have been on board for a week.
According to the Twitter account of this boat chartered by the German NGO Sea-Watch and the organization Médecins sans frontières (MSF), migrants are being treated by their medical teams for "fuel burns, dehydration, hypothermia and traumatic injuries".
World
Immigration: MSF joins forces with NGO Sea-Watch to resume rescues in the Mediterranean in August
World
Lampedusa: A migrant crosses the Mediterranean with his cat
- Immigration
- NGO
- Lampedusa
- Italy
- Migrants
- World