News from Lampedusa - a personal report (part 6)

The following is the sixth in a series of reports from a NoBorders activist in Lampedusa. (Read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 ).

Today, after the agreement between Italy and Tunisia, as promised by Berlusconi, they began to deportate Tunisian migrants back to their country directly from Lampedusa. At noon, about 30 migrants, left on a plane, accompanied by 60 policemen. Tonight they should deport other 30 Tunisians. There are about 1000 Tunisians at the moment in the detention Centre of Lampedusa. In the last days they are refusing to eat and they are protesting chantig slogans and asking to be free.
We were there in the morning to support them in their struggle with some banners. We managed to get quite close to the fences and shout at them and they were really happy to see us. We left after that the police asked our documents and threatened us to bring us to the police station, charging us with instigation (see video here).

In the afternoon the migrants burnt some mattresses and in the mess caused by the heavy smog, some people managed to run away from the detention centre. Unfortunately they were not even aware they were in an Island and they could not go very far. So most of them, were easily caught and brought back to the detention centre. Berlosconi promised two flights a day to deport Tunisians directly from Lampedusa airport. This means that since the people arrive at a quicker pace, soon there will be again as many migrants here as there were last week.