Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's commitments are being tested as thousands of migrants arrive at the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa and seek asylum while moving north to other European Countries.
The situation comes after the prime minister made pledges to thwart illegal migrants in the region that have pressured the Coast Guard's capability to intercept smugglers' vessels. The flotilla of flimsy boats carried crowded migrants who came from Tunisia and arrived on the southern Italian island on Wednesday.
Italy's Migrant Situation
Germany and France also made vows to rebuff migrants who arrive by sea on Italian shores, compounding the political pressure on the latter's first far-right leader. Additionally, in defiance of European Union asylum system rules, the migrants head northward to try to find jobs or relatives in those and other northern countries on the continent.
The unseaworthy, unstable iron boats came one after the other starting on Tuesday in what seemed to be almost a procession to onlookers living on Lampedusa. The Mediterranean island is a fishing and tourist island found south of Sicily, per Euronews.
There were roughly 6,800 migrants who arrived on the island in 24 hours, which is a number that is only a few hundred higher than the island's full-time population. One factor causing the surge in the number of migrants was a bottleneck in Tunisia's ports that lasted for several days.
Due to the Mediterranean island's sole migrant residence having a capacity of only 450 beds, authorities scrambled to transfer the asylum seekers via commercial ferries or a coast guard ship to Sicily or Calabria.
A spokeswoman for the Italian Red Cross located on Lampedusa, Francesca Basile, said that they were actively trying to provide basic services for the thousands of migrants at the center on the island.
Italian Transport Minister Matteo Salvini noted that by Wednesday evening, there were roughly 120 boats that arrived at the Italian island. Earlier that day, the coast guard tried to assist one boat, but the smugglers' vessel suddenly tipped over, according to ABC News.
Testing Giorgia Meloni's Commitments
They discovered that a mother with her five-month-old baby fell into the sea and was immediately rescued. However, while the woman, who was from Guinea and was in shock, survived, her child died.
Additionally, some migrants scuffled over food and bottles of water that the Red Cross distributed. At one point, police waved their batons at the migrants to force them to move back so that others could be put onto buses to take them to other points of the island to ease the crowding.
The country's migrant situation has seen roughly 118,500 sea migrants landing on Italian shores since Jan. 1, 2023. It was found to be a near-record figure that has shaken up Meloni's election campaign pledges.
Recently monitored arrivals near the peak recorded in 2016, based on current trends, when roughly 181,500 sea migrants arrived in Italy. From January to August of that year, officials reported that there were roughly 115,000 landings, compared to the 114,526 recorded in the same period this year, said Reuters.
