Brussels, 21/03/2011 (Agence Europe) According to AFP, the arrival of almost 1,630 migrants on Sunday 20 March and Monday 21 March led to a demonstration on the island of Lampedusa. On Friday 18 March the inhabitants of this small Italian island began to demonstrate against these arrivals. More than 10,000 have arrived since the beginning of February. The demonstrators even prevented the migrants from disembarking. They criticise the lack of capacity on this island, with the reception centre having 850 places for a total of 4,000 migrants currently living on the island. The mayor of Lampedusa, Bernardino De Rubeis, quoted by the Ansa press agency, stated that “the government is not respecting the people and is putting the citizens of Lampedusa in serious danger”. He also added that there was a risk of clashes with security forces. According to Ansa, De Rubeis again criticised the government of Silvio Berlusconi for the way it took care of migrants and said that it was shameful: “Italy accepts that thousands of immigrants are treated like animals and are compelled to sleep in the rain. The whole of Italy should be ashamed of this.” The Red Cross also said that the conditions in the reception centre were unacceptable.
On Monday 21 March, the Italian minister for foreign affairs again called on his European partners to help his country tackle the inflow of refugees and immigrants from North Africa, particularly Libya, indicated AFP. He said that “we want to share this very heavy burden of illegal immigration with all our partners, beginning with our European partners”. On Sunday, a security official quoted by official Libyan television stated that Libya had decided to cease co-operation with the European Union in its fight against illegal immigration. (S.P./transl.fl)