Brussels, 09/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - Nearly 4,000 migrants have been rescued by Italy in 48 hours and over 15,000 since the start of the year, said Italy's Minister for Home Affairs Angelino Alfano on Wednesday 9 April, as reported by French news agency AFP.
“The landings keep continuing and the urgency is ever more glaring”, Alfano told GR1, the news bulletin on Italian public radio station Rai Uno. The Italian navy announced on Tuesday that in 48 hours it had rescued over a thousand migrants who were found on three boats sighted by a helicopter and a drone.
Rome launched a vast operation known as Mare Nostrum [Our Sea] after the capsizing of a vessel carrying over 400 illegal immigrants from Eritrea and Syria off the coast of Lampedusa in October 2013. The EU also set up a Lampedusa task force at that time - the work of which is due to be presented in June at a summit on the future of European policies on immigration.
According to the annual report of the Jesuit centre Astalli, which deals with aid to refugees, 27,830 requests for asylum were submitted in Italy in 2013 - up by 60% in a year. According to the Astalli report, requests for asylum went up by 30% in the rest of Europe over the same period. The main country of origin of those requesting asylum is Syria.
The report also underlines that the number of requests for asylum is well below the number of people who officially landed on the shores of Italy (42,925 in 2013). (SP)