The cabinet’s "measure on NGOs" clamping down on private rescue vessels in the Mediterranean "isn’t closed yet, I hope the government in the coming weeks will also think about us," Lampedusa Mayor Filippo Mannino told Turin daily La Stampa in an interview published on Thursday, January 12.

"In the first days of January, we have registered nearly 3,000 presences. If we continue in this way, we will have 180,000 by the end of the year," the mayor said. "It would mean doubling the presence" of migrants compared to 2022. "We can’t sustain such figures in any way, neither in terms of management nor finances," he added.

'Municipal employees working on hotspots at the expense of citizens'

Mannino gave an example: "We need to pay for waste and the sum is the same as in August, when we have the highest number of tourists" on the island.

He said the municipality will be able to deal with such an expense for "two-three months with the money set aside for trash in the budget, but by March I will need to move other resources and I won’t be able to do anything for citizens."

Asked whether the municipality would be reimbursed by the central government for the additional expense, he said "maybe, at the end of the year. Meanwhile, however, I don’t have the resources necessary to confront the needs of those living on the island. We are seafaring people, we are welcoming, we know that everyone must be rescued at sea but we don’t have the resources here to deal with such a relevant phenomenon. The municipality has 15 employees and half of them work to solve the hotspot’s issues and problems on a daily basis."

He said that, "with the best will in the world," it is not possible "to think that this is our only activity" while many problems affecting locals need to be ignored. "I am the mayor of 6,000 residents, but it’s as if I represented 20,000," commented Mannino.

'Not assigning Lampedusa to NGOs already helpful'

The mayor of Lampedusa, who leads a center-right coalition, said in the interview that migrant routes leading to Lampedusa have changed: "Nearly all arrivals come from Tunisia, not Libya. Perhaps Tunis is trying to obtain something from Italy."

He then said that "the government should do something for us." Mannino noted that "deciding not assign Lampedusa as a safe port” for NGO-run ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean "is already helpful" as the island doesn’t need "for migrants rescued by vessels to also land here," he concluded.

(A