Pressure has been rising in response to regional governments' requests for engagement with the central Italian government on decisions concerning migrant relocation and reception, with local lawmakers calling for “shared decisions” as opposed to ones that are “imposed”.

Italy's interior ministry has tried to calm the situation by ensuring “maximum willingness to engage in dialogue with all institutional interlocutors”.

Temporary areas set up in Sicily and Calabria

Valerio Valenti, Italy’s commissioner for the migrant emergency, has pledged to deal with the new wave of migrants via new temporary areas set up in the country’s southern regions of Sicily and Calabria.

“We are doing this to be able to handle the significant increase in numbers. We are creating and implementing some ‘crisis points’, areas of initial reception, as we did on Lampedusa,” he said.

The politician underscored that “we are stressing the territory [of Lampedusa] due to the increase in arrivals."

The numbers surged on Sunday, the same day Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Tunis to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Tunisia's President Kais Saied.

Dozens of boats overflowing with migrants were rescued that day in the central Mediterranean. The Italian Coast Guard rescue coordination center facilitated over 30 rescue operations, which saved the lives of about 1,400 people.

On Saturday (July 15), almost a thousand migrants arrived at Lampedusa, causing the local hotspot to reach a record-high number of migrants (2,304) before transfers elsewhere began. The facility has a capacity of 400.

Stances differ on migrant relocations

The regional presidents have asked to speak directly to the central government about migrant relocation to different regions of the country.

Italy's Conference of Regions, a political body of coordination among the regions, said the country is experiencing a “very large failure” in migrant reception.

Presidents from the center left say they want to manage the relocations themselves, while those from the center right and especially the right-wing League party say the national government should take responsibility.

But not everyone in the League party sees the problem the same way. Veneto regional president Luca Zaia took a stance at odds with his fellow politicians, maintaining that investments should be made as soon as possible in regional hosting facilities in order to prevent the “creation of other tent cities”.

He added that “my Veneto cannot handle it anymore and Africa cannot fit into Italy”.

Tuscany regional president Eugenio Giani, who is a member of the Democratic Party (PD), asked for “greater attention to the entire sphere of the services sector, which in recent years has moved farther away from migrant reception management.”