Immigrants can be seen in photos, stretched out on filthy mattresses in every corner of the hotspot on the Italian island of Lampedusa, both inside and outside. “Mountains” of trash bags, overflowing with the remains of food and paper waste and plastic bottles, are seen next to clothes thrown anywhere and everywhere. And then there is the almost endless line of plastic bottles along the corridors that lead to bathrooms that are almost impossible to enter due to the stench. This is the inferno of the Lampedusa hotspot, where there are currently 1,878 people, compared with just under 350 places available.
“They are all bunched up together.There are women as well – four of whom pregnant – alongside children and those sick and in need of treatment, who sleep and eat on the ground amid the trash,” said former Pelagie islands mayor Giusi Nicolini. “There are fewer than 200 beds. These photos could be Libya. But instead it is Italy.”
“In the Lampedusa hotspot there are 1,600 [the number has risen to 1,878, Ed.], despite the fact that there are about 300 places available. And, in recent hours, there have been more boat landings: almost 200 people have arrived since yesterday [10 landings had as of time of writing resulted in 529 arriving, Ed.],” she added. Since the beginning of the year, there have been over 30,000 arrivals. In the same period last year there had been 23,000.
Such a dramatic situation pushed Lampedusa mayor Filippo Mannino to request an urgent meeting with Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese. The deputy mayor wrote that the interior ministry had given its availability only until the end of the month despite Territory and Environment councillor Attilio Lucia (League) being in close contact with Matteo Salvini and added that the situation was “unsustainable” due to the island making its livelihood from tourism. The leader of the party announced that he would “soon be on the island”.
