Lampedusa, Italy : The immigration crisis facing southern Italy deepened yesterday as more boats arrived from North Africa overnight and local people furious at the government's halting response stepped up protests.
In Lampedusa, the tiny island south of Sicily that has borne the brunt of the crisis, residents occupied the town hall and threatened to close off supplies and services unless thousands of illegal migrants were moved off in the next day.
"If the ships promised by the government don't come tomorrow, there will be a total shut down and no one will be able to eat on the island, including the immigrants who arrived last night," Salvatore Martello, a former mayor of Lampedusa and a prominent activist in the protests, told Reuters.
Outnumbered
Thousands of migrants have poured into Lampedusa in fishing boats and other small craft since the overthrow of former Tunisian President Zine Al Abedine Bin Ali in January loosened the tight frontier checks that blocked the way into Europe.
The quiet tourist island's normal population of 5,000 is now outnumbered by thousands of North African men living in improvised tent encampments on the hillsides and waiting to be taken to the mainland.
Despite the numbers and the lack of water and proper sanitation, serious incidents involving residents and migrants so far have been rare but there have been signs of growing concern about security as the situation has dragged on.
"What I saw in Lampedusa is really desperate," Raffaele Lombardo, the governor of the region of Sicily who visited the island on Sunday, told Canale 5 television.
"The Tunisians have occupied the island and they are starting to go into people's houses and threaten them."
Emergency meeting
Stung by accusations that it has failed to deal adequately with the crisis, the government will hold an emergency cabinet meeting which is expected to approve the dispatch of six naval transport vessels to clear the island today.
It has pledged more than €200 million ($280 million, Dh1027.6 million) in aid and credit lines to Tunisia and demanded that European Union partners contribute a solution, especially since many of the migrants want to go to other countries, in particular France.
"It's intolerable that Italy has to do everything for the refugees and even more so for clandestine immigrants itself," Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told reporters.
