Migrants clash with Italian police as Lampedusa island overwhelmed with arrivals

Clashes have erupted between the Italian police force with newly arrived migrants on the on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa against the backdrop of an extreme influx of refugees paralyzing local authorities in the past few days. 

As reported by Italian ANSA, almost 7,000 migrants have reached the small island in Italy's south, which forms the first entry point into the country for migrants fleeing from Northern Africa on boats. 

While the small island is always in a state of high alert as it always records high numbers of migrants arriving, the past days have seen an extreme increase in people fleeing to Lampedusa. Thousands are waiting to be relocated to reception centres on the island, as well as in other parts of Italy.

On September 13, clashes between the newly arrived asylum seekers and local police erupted at the Favaloro pier as hundreds of waiting migrants protested for the procedures to be sped up. 

“The issue of relocation [in other EU countries] is secondary. Very few people have been relocated in recent months. It’s a Linus blanket. The question is not how to unload the problem; it’s how to stop the arrivals in Italy, and I still don’t see any concrete answers”, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on national TV.

The current migrant crisis on the island already mourned its first fatality, as a 5-month-old baby drowned when a boat carrying people from Tunisia capsized just off the island. According to the Guardian, rescue operations were underway but came too late for the little boy, while all other passengers, including his mother, could be rescued.