Tiny Italian island figures large for migrants
Reporting from Lampedusa, Italy — The aging turboprop filled with a squad of blue-clad Italian riot police banks over the Mediterranean and descends onto a tiny, wind-swept island that emerges like an apparition from the turquoise waters near Tunisia.
Lampedusa has been a base for fishing fleets, an exile for radicals and Mafiosi, and a vacation spot in summer, when the population multiplies tenfold. Today, it is the border.
Like the U.S.-Mexico line, this island an hour’s flight south of Sicily has become a rampart between two worlds. Lampedusa, all 12 square miles of it, serves as a gateway to Europe for seagoing migrants who are smuggled, abused and exploited by criminals and, allegedly, officials in Libya, the main staging ground for the illicit journeys.
Last year, Italian security forces based here intercepted about 34,000 illegal immigrants on precarious vessels from Africa, double the number in the previous year. That human wave from the south has collided with a powerful counter-current: a Europe-wide move to fortify borders that has been intensified by the global economic meltdown.
In recent weeks, Italy announced tough measures against seagoing migrants, who account for 15% to 20% of illegal entrants.
Source:
Tiny Italian island figures large for migrants
latimes.com
