Number of migrants landing in Italy doubled in past year

Mass Migration to Italy

By Reporter

Over 21,000 migrants landed in Italy between August 2019 and July 2020, more than double the number that migrated in the preceding year, as economic crisis in Tunisia fueled migration in boats across the Mediterranean.

Italian Interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, speaking at an annual Aug. 15 press conference, said on Saturday that the number went up by 148 per cent year-on-year.

Lamorgese said the majority of the arrivals were “autonomous landings, hard to manage… with small boats and dinghies’’, rather than those rescued at sea and brought ashore.

Many of the migrants land on Italy’s southern Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.

In the 12-month period, just over 5,000 people were rescued, mainly by ships operated by NGOs, according to data from the ministry.

Over 80 per cent of the migrants reaching Italy, left from Tunisia and Libya, the data showed, with Tunisia’s crisis stoking the numbers attempting the treacherous crossing.

“The numbers aren’t very high – they are certainly higher than last year’s but we must put them into context.

“Tunisia is in a deep economic, social and political crisis,’’ Lamorgese told reporters.

“We have seen entire families leave to reach Italian territory.’’

For years, Italy has been the primary route into Europe for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and other migrants and Libya’s west coast the main departure point for African migrants hoping to reach Europe.

A peak was reached between August 2016 and July 2017, when almost 183,000 migrants reached Italy.

Numbers started falling due to an Italian-led effort to disrupt smuggling networks and support the Libyan coastguard to intercept boats, but have picked up in 2020.

Lamorgese’s predecessor, head of the anti-immigrant League party, Matteo Salvini, took a hard-line against charity ships that rescued migrants at sea.

He closed Italian ports and accused the rescue groups of de facto collaboration with human traffickers.

Lamorgese said that she would meet Tunisian President Kais Saied on Monday to discuss the issue, along with Italy’s Foreign Minister, Luigi di Maio, and EU Commissioners, Ylva Johansson and Olivér Várhelyi.