A delegation of MPs from Italy's ruling Fratelli d'Italia (FDI, or Brothers of Italy) party visited the island of Lampedusa on June 9. For the past 20 years, the island has been a primary European entry point for migrants arriving by sea, mostly from the coasts of Libya and Tunisia.

The delegation consisted of Arianna Meloni, the sister of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and head of the political secretariat; the party leaders in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, Galeazzo Bignami and Lucio Malan; department chiefs Giovanni Donzelli, Francesco Filini, and Sara Kelany; vice presidents Augusta Montaruli, Salvatore Sallemi, and Marco Scurria; and Senator Raoul Russo.

The FDI MPs visited the city hall, where they met with Mayor Filippo Mannino to discuss migrant arrivals and the hotspot on the island that has, for the past two years -- since the Meloni government came to power -- been managed by the Italian Red Cross.

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Mayor calls Red Cross presence 'turning point'

Some 144,641 migrants have passed through the facilities in Imbriacola county since June 2023, after the Italian Red Cross took over the management of the facilities. Since Jan. 1 and until May 31 this year, a total of 18,035 migrants -- a rise of 25.3 percent on the previous year, when the number was 14,393 -- have arrived on Lampedusa.

In welcoming the FDI delegation, Pelagie Islands Mayor Filippo Mannino underscored that the situation on the island is still serious due to the daily arrival of hundreds of migrants, but that it had improved since the Red Cross took over the management of the hotspot.

"I became mayor and witnessed scenes unworthy of a civilised country: people crowded into the hotspots, sleeping outside, children without the chance to be seen by a paediatrician, delays in transfers, and many issues that led to my asking the government repeatedly for strong action," Mannino said.

"Over the past two years, I have not missed what I saw when I took on this position, even though many continue to arrive -- though the numbers are lower than before. We have learned to govern and handle the phenomenon. The [introduction of] presence of the Red Cross was the turning point."

"I do not miss," he added, "the calls I used to receive in the middle of the night when the management was in the hands of cooperatives and they had neither milk nor bottles to give to infants. This is no longer the case. The presence of the Red Cross, like the transfer of migrants within the space of 24-48 hours, since identification procedures were introduced, was the turning point."

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Mayor says government 'listens to us'

"Migrants used to remain for weeks and this led to serious problems in terms of living conditions. Work was carried out on the facilities that made it more welcoming -- more human," he said, noting that the emergency of migrant boats that had been left to drift and almost always arrived at the mouth of the port had jeopardized ferry arrivals and vessels and harmed fishermen.

"Now the procedures have changed and these boats are taken away quickly, in 24-48 hours. We also used to have to deal with the corpses, while now the prefect's office and the interior ministry handle them," he noted.

"The requests made to the central government have been answered, and I must say -- and I am not saying this to flatter you because you are here -- but fortunately, the government listens to us."

The mayor noted that "we used to pay for the burial of the corpses with our own money, from other government departments, and then wait to be reimbursed. This was money taken from the social services and youth policies in order to bury migrants."