Illegal immigration: Over 500 boat migrants go ashore on Italy's coast

Roccella Ionica - The Italian authorities picked up around 500 boat migrants in the Mediterranean on Sunday night and brought them ashore. The illegal immigrants are mostly Egyptians and Syrians, as the Italian news agency Ansa reported.

Accordingly, the coast guard initially took in 300 people who were traveling on a fishing boat and docked with them at the port in the town of Roccella Ionica. The financial police later brought more than 200 more migrants ashore.

In the coastal city at the tip of the Italian boot, the number of illegal immigrants, most of them from Africa, has recently risen sharply. The Italian media therefore referred to it as the “new Lampedusa” with reference to the Mediterranean island, which was one of the main destinations of immigrants in the past.

The number of boats has increased significantly
Another 58 African migrants also arrived in the Spanish Canaries on Sunday evening. They started south of the Sahara and were reported to the authorities by a French yacht.

So far this year around 57,800 boats migrants have come to Italy via the Mediterranean route. In 2020 there were around 31,200 in this period.

Source: Junge Freiheit