Overcrowding in the reception center leads the authorities to transfer “almost 5,000 people” from the island of Lampedusa. The UN warns that it is a priority to guarantee “adequate assistance to vulnerable people.”
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned this Friday that the The situation on the Italian island of Lampedusa is criticalfollowing the arrival by sea of an unprecedented number of migrants and refugees in recent days.
Migrations: Lampedusa registers a record of more than 5,000 arrivals in 24 hours
“The situation on Lampedusa is critical and we recognize that urgent actions are being taken to return the island to normality,” said Chiara Cardoletti, local representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in a statement.
“We fully recognize the difficulties caused by the simultaneous arrival of a large number of people on a small island, where reception capacities are limited. To ensure that people receive the assistance they need, decongesting the island remains a top priority,” added Cardoletti, expressing his gratitude for the efforts of the Italian authorities “who have already transferred almost 5,000 people in the last 28 hours.”
“In this situation of serious overcrowding, it is a priority to identify and guarantee adequate care for vulnerable peoplesuch as, for example, survivors of violent situations and those with other fragile conditions,” said the representative.
Cardoletti expressed confidence that the situation can be resolved, “with a disembarkation mechanism that involves the Use of larger capacity ships to relieve pressure on Lampedusa.also transferring the rescued people to other disembarkation areas.”
This solution, explained the representative, “requires early support from the European Union (EU) in a spirit of shared responsibility and solidarity with the countries of first landing.”
The representative also reiterated UNHCR’s call for the establishment of a regional mechanism for disembarkation and redistribution procedures for people arriving by sea.
Italy, along with Greece, Spain or Malta, It is one of the “front line” countries in terms of arrivals of irregular immigrants to Europe.
The country is part of the so-called central Mediterranean route, considered one of the deadliest, which leaves Tunisia, Algeria and Libya towards Italian territory, in particular the island of Lampedusa, and Malta.
On tuesday, 110 landings were recorded with more than 5 thousand immigrants on the small Sicilian islandwhich is closer to the African coast than the Italian peninsula itself.
The large number of arrivals ended up saturating the local infrastructure, where on Tuesday there was a traffic jam of boats waiting to disembark on the small island.
The reception center (hotspot) of Lampedusa, with capacity for 400 people, was completely overcrowded, with around 6,000 immigrants.
Source: Observadora
