Authorities in Italy have reported that nearly a thousand migrants have arrived in more than a score of boats on the island of Lampedusa over the weekend, a large number of whom are minors.
The Italian Coast Guard has indicated that a total of 974 people have been recorded arriving in various small boats, although more migrants are expected to arrive throughout this Monday, according to information from the Adnkronos news agency.
Earlier, authorities said that the island’s migrant reception center is overloaded with 1,883 migrants, despite the fact that it was originally designed to accommodate about 400 people.
For its part, the German NGO Resqship has indicated that on Sunday the lifeless bodies of two people were recovered after a shipwreck off the coast of Malta. About 25 people were on board the boat, although most of them were rescued.
Lampedusa is located between Sicily and North Africa, just 190 kilometers from the Tunisian coast, and is therefore often a destination for numerous boats with migrants on board.
Italy’s Interior Ministry estimates that more than 28,000 people have arrived in Italy on such boats since 2023 began, a figure four times higher than that recorded in this same time period last year, when 6,900 arrivals were recorded.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
