Another boat with hundreds of migrants on board has arrived on Lampedusa. But the government says its work to stop migration is bearing fruit, as the number of people reaching Italy has fallen for the first time this year.
After a relatively quiet period which saw few migrant boats reaching Lampedusa, overnight a fishing boat carrying several hundred people arrived at the island.
Authorities said there were 347 people crammed onto the 25-meter boat, which had set out from Zouara in Libya. Those on board were from Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan and Syria – two were women and the rest were men.
€8,000 for high-risk journey
The small Italian island of Lampedusa is just over 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) from the Tunisian coast and so is often the first point of arrival for migrants from Africa who want to get to Europe.
The migrants who landed at Lampedusa on Wednesday night said they had paid smugglers as much as €8,000 for the journey.
Huge sums are typically paid to smugglers despite the risks posed by taking to the sea in boats which are often unseaworthy. Ten years ago this month, hundreds of migrants drowned in two shipwrecks off Lampedusa.
On Sunday (October 22), 245 people who had set out in a fishing boat two days earlier from Zouara and whose engine had malfunctioned were escorted in rough seas to safety in Lampedusa harbor by the Italian coast guard. There were reports that the rescue happened late, narrowly averting another tragedy at sea.
The migrants had contacted alarm phone, the emergency hotline for boats in distress in the Mediterranean, and had to be assisted by non-government rescue organizations.
Government announces drop in arrival numbers
On Lampedusa the migrant reception "hotspot" now holds 356 people, according to the news site agrigentonotizie (Agrigento News). Those who arrive on the island are swiftly transferred to the main island of Sicily or to the Italian mainland.
Last month, Lampedusa authorities declared a state of emergency and France and Germany effectively closed their borders with Italy when migrants arrived suddenly on the island in very large numbers – including more than 5,000 in a single day – mostly from the Tunisian coast.
On Wednesday this week, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who came to power promising to stop undocumented migrants reaching Italy, said the number fell in October for the first time this year. "The work done by the government is starting to bear fruit," she said. According to official figures from the Italian interior ministry, around 140,000 people have arrived by boat so far in 2023.
With dpa