Tackling the migration crisis in Italy is becoming increasingly more difficult and a source of tensions among members of the governing coalition. Apocalyptic conditions are rampant on the island of Lampedusa, the island's parish priest said. In recent days, the number of illegal immigrants in the camp has reached 6,700, with more than 4,500 still in crowded, inhuman conditions, according to the latest press reports.
Migrants continue to escape from the reception center, which is surrounded by an iron fence. They climb over the fence and scatter across the island in the presence of the police. Locals report that exhausted migrants that have left the center can be seen on their knees, begging for food in the streets of the island.
A firefighter was so saddened by what he saw, that he welcomed a group of ten migrants into his home and served them spaghetti. According to press reports, conflict are growing between Red Cross staff working in the camp and the migrants, who are rebelling for fear they will not be given adequate food and drinking water.
A torch-lit procession in Lampedusa on Thursday evening, commemorated a five-month-old baby who died during a recent sea crossing.
Governing party Lega's chief, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, said that there are many ways to stop migration pressure, such as changing the existing rules on immigration policy.
Extraordinary situations must be handled with extraordinary means,
he said, referring to the fact that the cooperation with Libya put in place by PM Giorgia Meloni has not delivered the expected results. In Deputy PM Salvini's view, a facility for people awaiting deportation should be set up in each province. The minister for ports and infrastructure would also deploy the navy to stop the migratory invasion - an idea that is expected to be discussed at Monday's Council of Ministers meeting, the press reports.
According to Salvini, an assault is taking place; the European Union has abandoned Italy.
Lega party politicians are calling for the reinstatement of the security migration package that was in place when Salvini was interior minister. With 126,000 illegal immigrants since the beginning of the year, there is no doubt that changes are needed. Lampedusa Mayor, Filippo Mannino, continues to call on the government to deploy boats on the coast to transport migrants directly to the peninsula, bypassing Lampedusa.
Cover photo: Illegal immigrants wait in the port of Lampedusa to be transferred to the warship Cassiopea for further transport to other parts of Italy on 15 September 2023. A record number of around 6,400 migrants have arrived on the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy in recent days, prompting the local authorities to declare a state of emergency. (Photo: MTI/EPA/ANSA/Ciro Fusco)
