Lampedusa

An aid group said Saturday it recovered the bodies of 11 migrants off the Libyan coast and transferred them to an Italian coast guard ship.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticized the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday for hypocrisy on the issue of mass migration, charging open-borders advocates with spreading “chaos,” making human traffickers rich, and bringing the evil of slavery back into the world.

Thousands of illegal migrants delivered by people smugglers from the North African coast landed on Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa this past week, sparking a warning Sunday from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni the “future of Europe is at stake” if the human flood tide is allowed to continue.

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni vowed “extraordinary measures” to deal with the migrant crisis, including calling anew for a naval blockade.

A record-breaking number of illegal migrants arrived on Italy’s shores this weekend, leading Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to call an emergency meeting Monday to confront the situation.

Italy has seen the number of illegal boat migrants landing on its shores double over last year, reaching nearly 90,000 in just seven months.

Dozens of migrants were dramatically rescued by Italy as they foundered in the sea or clung to a rocky reef Sunday.

Italy has seen over a thousand migrants arrive on Sicily Lampedusa in a day, once again overwhelming migrant reception centres.

The Italian island of Lampedusa saw a record-breaking number of migrant boats land this weekend, with 50 landings taking place within the space of just 24 hours.

Italian populist League leader Matteo Salvini has called for the country’s next Interior Minister to be a member of his party, citing the successes he had tackling illegal immigration when he had the job.

The migrant reception centre on the Italian island of Lampedusa is far beyond full capacity, with as many as 1,800 migrants residing in the facility built to hold just 350.

The leader of Italy’s Lega party, Matteo Salvini, said Tuesday that the island of Lampedusa faces a new “collapse” due to the continued arrivals of hundreds of illegal migrants to its shores.

In order to avoid deportation back to their home countries, illegal migrants are said to be refusing Chinese coronavirus tests as well as the vaccine to remain in Italy. Migrants in Italy continue to refuse to take Wuhan virus tests

Italy has arrested four people smugglers, one of whom is said to be connected to the deaths of four migrants, including a woman. 

Nearly one-third of occupants in Italian prisons are migrants, with the latest official data showing over 17,000 prisoners came from abroad.

35,000 illegal migrants landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2021, an all-time record for arrivals.

Around 800 migrants are on three different NGO migrant “taxi” ships are awaiting port access after being picked up in the Mediterranean. 

In a period of just 48 hours, the Italian island of Lampedusa is said to have seen around 500 migrants arrive on its shores after a brief break arrivals in recent weeks.

Pope Francis said Sunday that he hears the cries of migrants in Libya and appealed for an end to repatriation and the establishment instead of “regular migration routes.”

The pro-migrant NGO Doctors Without Borders has called for an expansion of reception facilities on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which has been inundated by new migrant arrivals for months.

ROME (AP) – The Italian Coast Guard rescued 125 migrants who were spotted huddling together on the rocky shore of a tiny uninhabited isle at dawn Thursday, after one of their two boats partially sunk near Lampedusa island.

More than 500 migrants arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Saturday, with several of them allegedly showing signs of abuse and torture.

After 18 new migrant boat landings in just two days, the reception centre on the island of Lampedusa now houses 900 people, despite only having space for 250. In 24 hours alone, some 600 migrants arrived on the island as

Italy’s Interior Ministry has revealed that from August 1st, 2020, to July 31st of this year, 49,280 arrived illegally in the country.

Lampedusa has seen nonstop landings of illegal migrant boats over the last several days, with hundreds arriving on the Italian island.

A pregnant woman is among seven women who drowned off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa late Tuesday night.

A vessel operated by the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) with 410 migrants on board arrived at an Italian port Thursday afternoon after over 1,200 migrants arrived in a single day last weekend at Lampedusa.

(AFP) — Italy is pushing EU partners to revive migrant burden-sharing deals as it seeks to stave off a summertime surge in landings from North Africa, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Wednesday.

The Italian government is in a race against time to acquire new facilities for incoming migrants as arrivals surge and ships previously used for quarantine will soon no longer be available.

ROME (AP) — More than 1,200 migrants in several decrepit, overcrowded fishing boats on Sunday reached a tiny Italian island in a span of 12 hours, as human traffickers exploited calm seas and warm weather to launch multiple vessels, the mayor said.

Twin shipwrecks off the coast of Sfax, in eastern Tunisia, claimed the lives of at least 39 African migrants Tuesday including 9 women and 4 children.

Policemen on the migrant hotspot island of Lampedusa have complained they are not getting enough protection after ten officers tested positive for the Wuhan virus.

People traffickers in the Mediterranean sea are allegedly using pregnant women as “weapons” to encourage public sympathy for mass migration.

European Commissioner for Migration Ylva Johansson admitted that just a third of bogus, rejected asylum seekers return to their home countries — and less than a third go voluntarily.

At least 20 African migrants drowned Thursday when a dinghy carrying about 45 people sank off the coast of Tunisia.

Over half of the Tunisian migrants who claimed Italian citizenship between 2012 to 2017 used EU Free Movement rules to move to France.