Brussels, 27/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 23 January, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed its growing concern over the conditions faced by nearly 2,000 migrants, including some asylum seekers, currently crammed into one reception centre on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. “The centre has capacity for only 850 people and hence cannot accommodate such high numbers. The result is that hundreds of people are now sleeping outdoors under plastic sheeting and adequate reception standards cannot be maintained,” said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond in Geneva. Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni announced on Friday that there was to be an Identification and Expulsion Centre opened for illegal immigrants landing on the island, to allow repatriation directly from Lampedusa. On hearing the news on Friday, 3,000 people, half the island's population, marched on the reception centre, where 1,677 immigrants are currently being housed to demonstrate their opposition to the construction of a further centre. The following day some 700 illegal immigrants broke out of the centre for a few hours to protest about the conditions in which they were being held and to call for expulsion procedures to be speeded up. In 2008, 31,200 immigrants landed in Lampedusa, a 75% increase on 2007. (B.C./transl.rt)