A flotilla of migrant boats from Tunisia overwhelms an Italian island and tests Meloni's policy
A flotilla of flimsy boats, crowded with migrants and launched from Tunisia is overwhelming a tiny Italian island south of Sicily
ROME — A flotilla of flimsy boats, crowded with migrants and launched from Tunisia, overwhelmed a tiny southern Italian island on Wednesday, taxing the coast guard's capability to intercept the smugglers' vessels and testing Premier Giorgia Meloni's pledge to thwart irregular migration.
Compounding the political pressure on Italy's first post-war far-right leader were vows by France and Germany to rebuff migrants who arrive by sea on Italian shores, and, in defiance of European Union asylum system rules, head northward to try to find jobs or relatives.
Starting early Tuesday, the unseaworthy, overcrowded iron boats, came one after the other in what appeared to be almost a procession to onlookers on Lampedusa, a fishing and tourist island south of Sicily. Around 6,800 migrants came in a span of just over 24 hours — that number is a few hundred higher than the isle's full-time population.
With Lampedusa-based Italian coast guard and border patrol boat unable to intercept all of the smugglers' boats offshore, dozens of migrants temporarily eluded authorities by climbing up Lampedusa’s rocky shores on their own.
When the coast guard tried to assist one boat early Wednesday, the smugglers' vessel tipped over, and a mother with her five-month-old baby fell into the sea, Italian Rai state TV said, reporting from Lampedusa. The woman, who is from Guinea, was rescued, in shock, but the baby died, Rai said.
Provoking the increase in numbers was a bottleneck in Tunisia's ports caused by rough seas that meant the smugglers hadn't been able to launch their boats for days, according to Italian authorities.
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