"I am tired but alive", Moumi, 20, kept telling police officers, Red Cross operators and journalists on Lampedusa on Friday, September 15. The Gambian migrant, who seems much younger than his age, reached the tiny Italian island this week after four days at sea.

He speaks a little bit of Italian and some English, which allowed him to communicate with those around him. He said his journey lasted four days and that he departed with his father from Sfax, in Tunisia.

"We were scared, very scared, but we are alive", he explained. Moumi said he is aware that many don't survive the journey across the Mediterranean and for this reason, even if he was standing under the scorching sun, with a yellow towel on his head and sandals that were too small for his feet, he felt happy.

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On Friday, he was standing together with a group of Gambian nationals, who were all looking for a cigarette. When asked where his father was, he replied that he was sitting a row ahead: "He is fine, he is fine. We are alive!" he repeated.

Protests over transfers

However, while Moumi said he was simply happy to be safe and to have something to eat and drink, others weren't as calm. Some North African migrants on Friday protested when they saw three Red Cross buses transferring others from the hotspot.

Protesters, who were sitting along the street, waiting to be relocated, screamed and tried to stop the buses because they felt they had precedence and should have been moved sooner.

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Police officers and Red Cross volunteers explained that there were no preferences and that the 60 who were being taken to the port had been scheduled for relocation to the mainland before them. The transfers are carried out based on lists composed by the numbers that each migrant has on a bracelet or a tag that he or she is wearing, organizers said.

Moments of tension

"They want to leave, they just want to leave and then they want to do things their way", said a Red Cross operator who was trying to organize departures from the hotspot, where migrants were waiting in rows for a bus that would take them to the port.

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Moments of tension were recorded when a young boy tried to hit someone with a piece of iron who was trying to jump the queue.

Policemen "disarmed" him. The migrants waiting in line asked policemen, journalists and Red Cross operators for a cigarette. And when someone gave a cigarette away, they were immediately surrounded by dozens of youths who gave up only when the cigarette pack was finally emptied.