The tiny Italian resort island of Lampedusa sits in the Mediterranean about 120 miles off the coast of Tunisia. That puts it closer to North Africa than to Italy, so close that it’s becoming a landing place for migrants who are desperate to enter Europe. Last week more than 10,000 migrants made the incredibly dangerous journey to Lampedusa, creating yet another migration crisis for which Italy and, more broadly, Europe are not prepared. NPR’s Ruth Sherlock is on the island tonight and joins us now . . .
They are all (almost all) young males.
Bombs, persecution, hurricanes target the young, the old, females, or men with families equally. IOW they are not asylum-seekers, nor are then refugees from famine, flood etc…
Their apparent plan is to abandon the boat when they arrive. They must have enough money that each boatload can effectively buy the boat and they are well-organized enough that they can finds hundreds of boats at the same time. This is a government or criminal smuggling cartel at work.
A lot of them are black, but they are setting sail from majority Arab countries. There is at least one Arab government involved.
Given what it costs for a fishing trip or boat tour around here, (I live in a tourist town), I can only imagine what a person would have to pay to not only take a trip, but convince the boat owner to give up his boat, his only means of making a living, at the end of a journey.
I don’t think any of these people were planning on staying in Lampedusa, working there and making a new life.
I doubt any of them arrive with funds and plans for catching the next ferry to mainland Europe.
This subset of migrants are among the worst. From Day One they are gaming ths (welfare) system. From Day One they are counting, not on working and earning their way but on government largesse, (a government bailout.)
These are not “war refugees” or “asylum seekers” and they have demonstrate that they are also not honest hard-working people just looking to work hard and create a better life for their families.
Given how much they probably had to pay to convince a boat owner to take them on a trip and abandon his boat I have to wonder if they are even poor.
The island is gone it’s might as well be handed over to the UN. If Giorgia Meloni doesn’t get this under control she will be voted out it was the only reason she was voted in in the first place was to deal with the boats.
Well. the good news for Meloni is that 10,000 migrants on an island is a little like a refugee camp. It is much easier to re-patriot them since they have not entered the Italian mainland.
And I wonder what the residents of the island think here… It’s sort of a Martha’s Vineyard of Italy, after all. The residents are going to reach a breaking point, if they haven’t already.
