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More than 2000 boat migrants arrived on the small Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa within a short time - and more boats were expected on Monday.

This was reported by the Ansa news agency.

In Italy the alarm calls increased after the number of arrivals tripled compared to the previous year.

On Monday night, patrol ships picked up several hundred people from small boats off Lampedusa and brought them ashore.

Others, according to Ansa, reached the coast themselves.

This means that the number of men, women and children who were registered on the island with 20 landings within 24 hours has risen to 2,128.

Lampedusa is located between North Africa and the main island of Sicily, to which the island administratively belongs.

Usually around 6000 people live on Lampedusa.

The Sicilian regional president Nello Musumeci spoke of a "human drama of migrants in the Mediterranean region" that was unsolved.

Everyone knows that many migrants will die at sea in the coming weeks.

“But nobody lifts a finger, neither in Rome nor in Brussels,” he wrote on Facebook.

12,900 migrants reached Italy

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In recent weeks, private sea rescuers on the Mediterranean have also observed that a large number of migrants are again making the dangerous journey to Europe in rubber dinghies and small wooden ships, often from Libya and Tunisia.

One reason is the good May weather with often calm seas, it said.

According to a count by the Interior Ministry in Rome, a total of almost 12,900 migrants had come to Italy by Monday morning since the beginning of the year. A year ago there were a good 4,180 at the same time. A particularly large number come from Tunisia, the Ivory Coast and Bangladesh. Right-wing parties, including the co-ruling Lega of former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, warned of "thousands of illegal immigrants" over the weekend. The party leader called for a meeting with Prime Minister Mario Draghi. "With millions of Italians in trouble, we cannot think of thousands of illegal immigrants," said Salvini.

Salvini announced on Sunday evening that he would look for solutions together with Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese.

Lamorgese was already in contact with Draghi because of the increase in the number of boat migrants, according to Ansa.

The Italian government is trying to quickly redistribute boat migrants within the European Union (EU) to other countries.

But many of these countries are resisting it.

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More people are also arriving off the Mediterranean island of Malta.

The Alarm Phone aid organization called for help for five boats with more than 400 passengers in Maltese waters.

"The situation on board is critical," said the organization.

"Rescue is needed now!"

Rescue ship "Sea-Watch 4" arrested in Sicily

Meanwhile, sea rescuers are reporting obstruction by Italian authorities.

On Monday, the private sea rescuers informed the German aid organization Sea-Watch that they feared their ship "Sea-Watch 4" could be detained longer in the port of the Sicilian city of Trapani because of an official order.

The rescuers arrived there last week with more than 450 boat migrants.

The crew is currently in a 14-day quarantine, said a Sea-Watch spokeswoman.

After that, however, it was unclear whether the ship would be allowed to sail again.

According to the organization, the "Sea Watch 4" was detained on the basis of an order from September 2020, because of which it had already been held in port.

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This had meanwhile been lifted until the Italian coast guard had recently lodged an objection.

During an inspection of the "Sea-Watch 4" too many life jackets were found on board, the Sicilian judicial authorities said.

The ship's sewage system was not designed for such a large number of rescued people, the authority said.

Another ship of the organization, the "Sea-Watch 3", was confiscated by the Italian coast guard in the Sicilian port of Augusta in March.

In this case, too, the authority relied on violations of safety regulations.

This means that neither of the organization's ships can currently leave the port.

The sea route across the Mediterranean is considered to be one of the most important routes for people on their way to Europe.

According to a count by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 530,000 people have reached Italy this way since the beginning of 2015.

However, the route between North Africa and Sicily is also one of the most dangerous migration routes.

359 people died, according to the IOM.

The United Nations estimates that just over 500 migrants have drowned.