In the last few months revolts in north Africa have led to an increasing number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to southern Europe.
Italy says that since the start of 2011 22,000 migrants have come to its shores, mostly from Tunisia.
We know of several boats that left African shores but failed to reach Italy. A boat which left Libya on 22nd March carrying 335 Eritreans and Ethiopians was attacked at sea and the passengers shot and killed. On 6th April, a boat with over 200 Somalians and Eritreans capsized and only 49 survived. Undoubtedly hundreds more have tried to make the journey in recent weeks and have perished on the way [1], the latest victims of Fortress Europe.
Many of the migrants that have reached Italy have landed on Lampedusa, an island 70 miles from Tunisia. [2]
On 30th March Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visited Lampedusa and said that he would rid the island of migrants within three days. The following day 1700 migrants were taken by ferry to mainland Italy.
At Manduria near Lecce, there have been revolts in the temporary detention centre that the Italian government has just opened, and several hundred migrants have successfully escaped.
In Ventimiglia, a town close to the French border in the north west of Italy, 3500 Tunisians have reportedly been seen in recent weeks. [3]
Many migrants crossing the border into France have met by French border police who have sent them back into Italy. French Interior Minister Claude Guéant announced on 5th April that 2,800 Tunisians have been questioned in the last month and that 1,700 of them have already been deported, the vast majority to Italy. Reports in Ventimiglia say that people smugglers have been seen to help get people across the border.
The European Commission has criticised France for preventing the free movement of people at its border with Italy, in contravention of the Schengen agreement.
Italy has also criticised France, alongside other EU countries, for not taking responsibility for helping to manage the migrants.
On 7th April Italy announced that newly-arrived Tunisian migrants will be given a 6 month Schengen visa, but they will step up attempts to prevent further migration from Tunisia. Later the same day the first deportation flight from Italy to Tunisia took place when a plane took off from Lampedusa carrying 30 migrants. On Friday 8th 40 migrants who had just arrived in Bari were immediately arrested and deported. Several hundred migrants have also been arrested trying to leave Tunisia in recent days.
On 11th April Frontex (the EU Border Force) announced that they would be extending Operation Hermes - the deployment of border police in the Mediterranean - until August 2011.
Notes
[1] For updates see Migrants at Sea website.
[2] For more on Lampedusa, see reports from the BBC and Independent on Sunday, and also a series of personal reports from a NoBorders activist who has been in Lampedusa for the past few weeks . ( Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5)
[3] See Der Spiegel article here.