- Title: AT SEA / ITALY: EU fears huge inflow of migrants from Arab world turmoil
- Date: 8th March 2011
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LAMPEDUSA MAYOR BERNARDINO DE RUBEIS SAYING: "What is happening in Libya is of serious concern to us, not because we fear an influx of Libyans on our territory but because we are worried about the re-opening of that migratory route that we experienced up until 2008, in other words, the arrival of men, women and children from Eritrea, Somalia, black Af
- Embargoed: 23rd March 2011 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: At Sea, Italy
- City:
- Country: Italy At Sea
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVAA73ABAT387YHFBPRAYWKZMU1M
- Story Text: The European Union may face a huge inflow of illegal migrants from restive Arab countries, the European Union border agency Frontex warns, though major traffic so far has been seen only from Tunisia.
Up to 7,000 migrants have so far reached Italy since the downfall of the Tunisian regime on January 6 but some EU members worry the turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, which has already ousted the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt and is now convulsing Libya, will spark heavy waves of illegal migration into the bloc.
For now, the immigrant traffic has focused on Italy, streaming from Tunisia to the Italian island of Lampedusa, which lies approximately 120 kilometres away from the Tunisian coastline.
The majority of the immigrants hope for better lives and job opportunities in Europe and are not asylum seekers, according to the head of Frontex, but one scenario is of a massive influx of people who are really in need of international protection.
European Parliament and the EU's executive body, the European Commission, are drafting emergency financing plans if such a scenario were to materialise, the agency said.
Italian coastguard are patrolling the waters around the island and embarking on rescue operations when needed.
Some of the immigrants are told to jump into the water from their vessels if they see border guards' aircraft or ships as the patrols are then obliged to fish the travellers out and then take care of them.
After a six-day break in new arrivals due to rough sea conditions, Italian authorities are concerned arrivals may now have resumed with over 500 Tunisians disembarking on Lampedusa earlier in the week.
Once the migrants reach Lampedusa, they are taken to a holding centre, which has a capacity for 800 people, and go through medical examinations and identification processes.
The migrants, mainly young men, are provided with a bed, hot meals, telephone cards and cigarettes.
The centre works on a systemised cycle, moving groups to other centres on Sicily or mainland Italy on a daily basis to relieve the strain on resources.
Some local residents have voiced concerns about the large number of migrants seeking respite from the fenced building complex, roaming around freely on the small island.
Young Tunisians climbing the rocky hills around the centre said some 700 migrants had been held at the barracks when they arrived earlier in the week.
The young men, carrying photos of their girlfriends back home, reflected on their situation as they smoked cigarettes on the hillside.
"What can I tell you!!! 70 of us came over… taking the risk, to make our future. We would love to live like the rest of humanity. I have got nothing in my life. In Tunisia, I was hanging around from one coffeeshop to the other, with no future, nothing," said 23-year-old Tunisian migrant Hassan Mani.
Italy and Tunisia have agreed on a cooperation framework that "respects Tunisia's sovereignty" to counter illegal immigration.
However, Italian authorities are also concerned that instability in Libya could spark a new flow of migrants which would be difficult to stem.
"What is happening in Libya is of serious concern to us, not because we fear an influx of Libyans on our territory but because we are worried about the re-opening of that migratory route that we experienced up until 2008, in other words, the arrival of men, women and children from Eritrea, Somalia, black African immigrants, which we saw, for instance 36,000 in 2008 alone. Therefore we are worried about the resumption of this kind of immigration, which is also the issue that concerns the Italian government, when it spoke about the two to three hundred thousand immigrants that could reach Italy," the mayor of Lampedusa, Bernardino De Rubeis explained.
Rome, formerly Libya's closest ally in Europe, signed a friendship and co-operation treaty with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi Tripoli in 2008 that included joint operations between Italian and Libyan coastguard forces to stem the floods of illegal immigration into Italy.
But with recent events in Libya it is clear that patrolling of waters along the Libyan coastline is no longer taking place. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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