Record number of migrants in Lampedusa

The southern Italian island of Lampedusa between Sicily and Tunisia is again confronted with a strong migration movement. According to the authorities, 46 boats with a total of 1,000 people on board have reached the island within 24 hours since Saturday. Never before had so many migrant boats reached Lampedusa in one day. The refugees, mostly from Tunisia, were housed in the island's "hotspot," which has room for a maximum of 250 people.

Around 340 migrants arrived on the island of Pantelleria between Sicily and Tunisia. The private aid organization SOS Mediterranee had previously rescued other boat migrants from distress in the Mediterranean. The crew of the "Ocean Viking" thus have 466 rescued people on board, the NGO announced on Twitter.

The Spanish rescue ship "Open Arms Uno" arrived in the Sicilian port of Messina on Saturday with 99 people - including some minors - on board who had been rescued off the Sicilian coast in the past few days. Most migrants are from Egypt, Bangladesh, Sudan, Nigeria, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria and Chad, Italian authorities said.

Doctors Without Borders' "Geo Barents" is also on its way, taking 97 people on board after three different missions, including 26 minors, the NGO announced on Twitter. The newly launched "Humanity 1" of the German organization SOS Humanity is also deployed in the central Mediterranean region.

92 migrants arrived in the southern Italian region of Puglia on Saturday aboard a sailing boat. More than 200 migrants have also landed in the Calabria region since Friday. People mostly leave the coasts of North Africa, for example from the civil war country Libya or from Tunisia, in order to get to the EU via the Mediterranean. They are often rescued from distress at sea by private aid organizations during the dangerous crossings across the Mediterranean.

Source: Kleine Zeitung