Italy declares state of emergency as migrant numbers surge

State TV said Premier Giorgia Meloni and her cabinet approved the imposition of a state of emergency to deal with the migrant influx, with a special commissioner expected to be named.

An initial funding of 5 million euros (about $5.5 million) was also approved as part of the measure.

Italy’s governing coalitions also imposed a state of emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling the cabinet to mandate a number of measures by decree, temporarily bypassing the usually lengthy parliamentary process for funding and regulations. given.

“Let’s be clear, this is not the solution to the problem, the solution of which is linked to a thoughtful and responsible intervention by the European Union,” Civil Protection and Maritime Policy Minister Nello Musumesi was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency ANSA.

Largely unsuccessfully, Meloni’s government, like many others before, has pressed for greater solidarity from EU countries, which often accept some refugees hoping to find relatives or work in northern Europe. They don’t follow through on their promises.

Since the beginning of this year, nearly 31,000 migrants, either rescued by Italian military boats or charity ships, or without assistance have reached Italy, according to Interior Ministry figures. This is nearly four times the nearly 8,000 for the same period in each of the previous two years.

Migrants arriving in unseaworthy vessels set ablaze by smugglers off North African coasts are set to increase. On Wednesday morning, a smugglers’ boat carrying about 700 passengers was expected to arrive in the port of Catania, a major city in eastern Sicily.

The Italian Coast Guard boat was towing the distressed fishing vessel to shore when a breakdown forced her to slow down to proceed. The Coast Guard had already transferred about 100 passengers when rough seas made that operation too risky, and it was decided to hold the rest of the migrants until the ship reached port. .

On one recent day alone, 26 migrant boats, many not in need of rescue, reached Lampedusa, a small Italian island south of Sicily. The facility on Lampedusa that shelters migrants so that they can be recognized as provisional as a first step towards any asylum application was creaking under the relentless stream of arrivals.

The shelter is meant to accommodate approximately 350–400 people, but in recent times held 3,000. Italy chartered empty commercial ferries to transfer hundreds of them to Sicily or the mainland.

On Tuesday, about 1,600 migrants were living in the Lampedusa structure, and officials were expecting an improvement in weather to allow about 400 people to be evacuated from the island by the evening.

“Many of the women have young children, as well as minors,” the migrant center director, Lorena Tortorici, told Italian Sky TG24 TV.

The largest number of migrants arriving so far this year are from the Ivory Coast, followed by people from Guinea, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia and Bangladesh, according to the interior minister’s tally.

For years, most smugglers’ boats ply the dangerous central Mediterranean route leaving western Libya. But in recent months many sea voyages have started from eastern Libya or Tunisia. Another route starts from Turkey, aiming to reach Calabria or Puglia at the southern end of the Italian mainland.