The following is a second report from a NoBorders activist in Lampedusa (see first part here).
The situation here is mad.
Lampedusa is being used as an open air prison.
In the detention centre now there are more than 3000 tunisians. There should be about 800 only...
http://tv.repubblica.it/cronaca/lampedusa-il-centro-di-accoglienza-e-un-...
There are also some women and many minors. They sleep everywhere: two in every beds, under the beds, outside, in any space available so that there is no space even to walk.
They do not have blankets.
There is no water to shower. They are given a bottle of water to wash themselves.
There is not much food. They have to queue up for hours and sometimes the food finishes before they arrive at the end of the queue and when they eat it they immediately want to sleep.
Even if according to the mayor they should not go out, the police usually tolerate them when they climb the fences to go out and buy some food or hang around in the village.
A few days ago Marine Le Pen(far right french politician) and Borghezio(Italian Lega nord) came to talk shit inside the centre!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXIcu02KqGo&feature=share
we organised a demonstration (about 30 people) to say they were not welcome.
A couple of days ago also Stefania Craxi (Vice Secretary of the minister of foreign affairs) came to pay a visit. When Ben Ali run away from Tunisia, she said that Italy should have welcomed him. In fact she owed him a favor since Ben Ali had welcomed his father Bettino Craxi when he run away from his trials for corruption.
Obviously In this case she didn't say that Italy should welcome all Tunisians!
In the meanwhile boats continue to arrive. On the 14th a boat sank with about 40 people on board. 5 of them were found and saved by another boat.
http://tv.repubblica.it/cronaca/lampedusa-il-naufrago-aggredito-dai-pesc...
A couple of days ago 2 corpses were found. Today some Tunisians told me that 20 corpses were found in Tunisia and that 3 boats disappeared.
Yesterday people from Lampedusa were exasperated by this situation and pushed by their selfish worry for their economy based primarily on turism, and when another boat arrived they occupied the harbour preventing the boat from the Italian Guardia Costiera with more than 100 people from mooring. They eventually landed only late in the evening and the new arrivals are probably sleeping rough.
Today some Tunisians were eventually transferred to other detention centres after about 10 days of wait.
The government found a solution to this situation: tomorrow they will bring a huge boat where they would keep about 1000 migrants. But it seems that they won't be transferred anywhere else, just kept here till when there will be a miracle and some places in other detention centres in the rest of Italy will appear or till when the red cross will build some tents to shelter the migrants.