About 90 Tunisians are still in the migrant center on the island of Lampedusa, a hotspot where migrants are supposed to stay only a few days after initial checks. Migrants from other countries have all been transferred to other centers but these Tunisians have remained - many of them for months - waiting for places to become available on the Italian mainland.
Most of these migrants are destined for repatriation, because they don't have the conditions to request international protection. They leave the center in the morning through a hole in the fencing and they pass their days on the island and in the town center.Some of them have tried to leave by hiding on rubbish trucks that are carried by ferry-boat to the Sicilian town of Port Empedocle, but this puts their lives at risk due to inhalation of the waste vapours, and controls have been stepped up.Problems with local residents abound as well, in part because some migrants damage summer homes that remain vacant in the winter, and partly because some migrants get drunk. In the photo, a Tunisian is seen walking along the waterfront at the port of Lampedusa.