'It's apocalyptic': Migrants scramble for water as tiny Italian island grapples with chaotic arrival scenes

Migrants board the Galaxy ship and head to the Sicilian city of Porto Empedocle Photo: AFP

The situation on the tiny island of Lampedusa is “apocalyptic” said a local priest as the number of migrants arriving from North Africa outnumbered the population.

The patch of territory lying between Tunisia and Sicily, with a population of 6,000, is now struggling to cope with 7,000 asylum seekers, who have arrived on its shores in the last 48 hours.

Tension is high on the island, with fights breaking out among migrants as they fight for water and food provided by emergency workers and Italian police using shields and batons to hold back huge crowds of people.

Lampedusa has not seen such a huge number of arrivals in such a short time, and locals say the crisis is out of control.

The situation on the island is “tragic, dramatic and apocalyptic,” Father Carmelo said Rizzo, local priest. “We can no longer even count the number of arrivals. We can't handle these numbers. There are 6,000 inhabitants on the island, there is no room to accommodate 7,000 migrants.”

Migrants climb over a fence to leave the hotspot where most migrants are gathering. Photo: Yara Nardi/Reuters

Filippo Mannino, mayor of Lampedusa, said: “In the last 48 hours, around 7,000 people have arrived in Lampedusa, which has always welcomed them with open arms.

However, we have now reached the point of no return, and the island is in crisis. Europe and the Italian state must immediately intervene and carry out a rapid support operation and a rapid evacuation of people.»

One doctor said that at a local medical clinic, staff worked around the clock to treat a variety of injuries and illnesses.

“We no longer count the hours,” said Francesco D’Arca. “We work day and night. We have had to triple the number of staff working on the boats that arrive.”

Although the new arrivals include infants, children, pregnant women and unaccompanied minors, the majority are young people, with a large number of them from Africa south of the Sahara.

Many of the arrivals are young people from sub-Saharan Africa. Photo: Reuters/Yara Nardi

Huge numbers of migrants and refugees The arrival on the island has put the right-wing government of Prime Minister Georgia Meloni under intense pressure.

She came to the office in October with a promise to prevent the boats from arriving. So far she has failed to fulfill this promise.

Opposition politicians sharply criticize the government.

Italy 'isolated'

Giuseppe Conte, the former prime minister and now leader of the populist Five Star Movement, accused Meloni's government of failing to deal with unauthorized migration and said Italy remained increasingly «isolated». other EU countries.

“The truth is that you cannot be controlled by slogans, and we are paying for it.”

The number of migrants arriving in Italy in 2023 rose to 124,000, up from 65,500 a year earlier. Photo: AFP/Alessandro Serrano

Chiara Braga, a senior member of the centre-left Democratic Party, said: “Lampedusa is on the brink of collapse. The few government initiatives have proven useless and harmful. They have no idea what to do.”

Germany announced Wednesday it was suspending a voluntary EU scheme under which it accepts some migrants from Italy for resettlement.

France is set to tighten controls along its border with Italy, saying too many migrants are crossing into France illegally.

Ms Meloni is trying to downplay the refusal of other EU countries to help Italy confront its migrant crisis.< /p> An Italian vendor offers ice cream to migrants waiting on the island Wednesday. Photo: AFP/Alessandro Serrano

She said relocating asylum seekers is secondary to the more important task of preventing them from crossing the Mediterranean.

“The issue of resettlement is secondary. Very few people have been relocated in recent months… [but either way] it's Linus' blanket,” she said, referring to the comfort blanket carried by the Peanuts cartoon character. “The question is not how to solve the problem, but how to stop arrivals in Italy.”

124,000 migrants and refugees have reached Italy this year, compared with 65,000 in the same period last year . .