Social Issues

More than 5,000 immigrants arrive in Italy’s Lampedusa in 24 hours

Rome, Sep 13 (EFE).- A total of 5,112 people have arrived in Lampedusa, the Italian territory closest to the African continent, in 24 hours, a figure that exceeds all records reached so far in the small island.

On Tuesday 110 boats were registered arriving on the island, while since midnight another 23 have been recorded, with about another thousand immigrants, according to local media, although the reception center only has capacity for 400.

The Italian Red Cross said in a statement that there were more than 6,000 people early Wednesday, many of them families with children, whose transfers are scheduled for the day, but the situation was made difficult due to the more than 100 landings in the last hours.

The rescue operations by the security forces have continued while there have also been numerous arrivals of immigrants who have landed on the island separately on their own.

The dock at Lampedusa remained crowded with numerous arrivals throughout the day on Tuesday.

The island’s head Filippo Mannino urged the government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to take emergency measures, such as army intervention, to handle the situation.

So far this year, 116,028 migrants have landed in Italy, more than double the number for the same period last year (63,498), according to the latest official figures published by the interior ministry. EFE

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