Some 565 migrants and refugees
arrived on Lampedusa on Friday in a total of 15 separate
landings since midnight.
The last three boats to arrive accompanied by finance police and
coast guard patrol boats carried respectively 42, 27 and 48
people and had departed from Mahdia and Sfax in Tunisia.
In one landing early on Friday two new arrivals said the boat
they had been travelling on sank and that they had been rescued
by another boat carrying 29 people, which was subsequently
intercepted by a finance police vessel and escorted to port.
The two survivors, in a state of shock, said some of their
initial travelling companions had been rescued by a Tunisian
vessel, while others were missing at sea, but without being able
to give details.
Meanwhile Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Friday he had
met with Justice Minister Carlo Nordio with the aim of "making
the system of deportation of irregular migrants more effective"
He told 'Oggi è un altro giorno' on Rai 1 that the idea - in
application of the recent clamp-down on irregular migration
introduced after the February 26 Cutro shipwreck - is to "create
detention centres in the places closest to the border for the
assessment of the existence of the prerequisites for recognition
of refugee status" for people coming from so-called safe
countries such as Ivory Coast and Tunisia and to hold those
"destined for deportation, while still ensuring respect for all
the rights of the person".
The detention centres are to be located in Sicily and Calabria,
including at existing hotspots including, possibly, Lampedusa,
where on Friday there were over 3,000 migrants and refugees
against an official capacity of 400.
64.930 migrants and refugees have arrived to Italy by sea so far
this year according to interior ministry figures.
This compares to 27.633 arrivals in the same period in 2022 and
to 20.532 in 2021.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
