ITALY: African migrants fleeing Libya arrive in Lampedusa

Record ID: 348448

  • Title: ITALY: African migrants fleeing Libya arrive in Lampedusa
  • Date: 20th April 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WITH THERMAL BLANKETS, BEING HELPED INTO HOSPITAL DOCTORS SHOWING NEW BORN BABY GIRL, ANGELA
  • Embargoed: 5th May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy, Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVACJG3OIQ8LKQYS719MXI6PVQY3
  • Story Text: A boat carrying 760 people, most from sub-Saharan Africa, arrived in the southern Italian island of Lampedusa from Libya on Tuesday (April 19).
    The boatload was one of the largest to arrive on the tiny island, located roughly midway between Sicily and Tunisia, which has been at the centre of an immigration crisis triggered by the upheavals in North Africa.
    Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a statement that most of those who arrived on Tuesday had suffered badly during the three-day voyage from an unknown location near Tripoli.
    "The migrants, the overwhelming majority from sub-Saharan Africa, presented symptoms of hypothermia, shock and severe exhaustion due to the conditions of the voyage," the statement said.
    Among the 760, MSF said there were 63 women, many of whom were pregnant and 7 children. One of the women, a Nigerian, gave birth to a baby-girl only a few hours after reaching Lampedusa.
    "The mother is fine. We are now going to take the child to Palermo for further assistance," said Italian Doctor Pietro Bartolo, who assisted the woman during labour. His colleague told reporters that the child was named "Angela."
    The dangers of the passage from Libya were starkly illustrated earlier this month when as up to 250 people were believed to have drowned after their overcrowded boat capsized and sank in the early hours of the morning in Maltese waters.
    Some 25,000 illegal migrants, most from Tunisia, have arrived in Lampedusa and other southern islands since the start of the year, when previously strict border controls disappeared in the turmoil that has swept the region.
    Earlier this month, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed to clear the island, whose population of around 5,000 was at times outnumbered by migrants sleeping in improvised tent encampments on hillsides and beaches.
    But hundreds of new arrivals have followed those shipped off the island to reception centres on the Italian mainland.
    Italian authorities have reached an accord with Tunis to try to stop the flow of illegal migrants from Tunisia, most of whom are young men seeking work in France.
    However officials remain deeply concerned about the possibility of a separate influx of refugees seeking to escape the fighting in Libya.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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