As many as 7,000 migrants in small boats arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa since Tuesday.
Lampedusa, which is situated in the southern territory of Italy, has long been the first point of arrival for thousands of migrants who sail from Tunisia, a distance of 332.95 km.
The small Island which is home to about 6,000 Italians serves as a processing point for migrants, many of whom move on to other European states.
It was reported that over a 24 hour period approximately 6,000 people arrived on 110 boats.
In the midst of the operation to bring the migrants ashore a five month old baby whose mother is reportedly a minor from Guinea fell into the waters and drowned.
Italy’s Red Cross has called the ongoing situation “chaos” calling for more support to deal with the huge influx of migrants while Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who came to power promising to bring Italy’s illegal migration problems under control, called a cabinet meeting two weeks ago in order to discuss the problem.
It was reported that so far this year 116,028 migrants have landed in Italy, a figure which is double that of the same period last year, 63,498.
The AP reports that, “On current trends, arrivals are near the peak recorded in 2016, when about 181,500 sea migrants arrived in Italy. In January-August of that year, there were about 115,000 landings, compared to 114,526 in the same period of 2023.”
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