The Arabic countries have been struggling for months to chase the dictators and change their dictatorships into democracies. Their right to move and live in other countries of the world has been denied because of agreements between the Fortress Europe and dictators as Ben Ali or Kadafi, and it is still denied because the blind European policy has not changed at all. This means thousand of people are dying in the attempt to cross the Mediterranean sea, thousands get stopped in the Libyan-Tunisian border and live for months in terrible conditions in tents in the middle of the desert while the lucky ones get to Europe to live with no papers and no rights.

Please join London NoBorders for an open discussion on Lampedusa and Tunisia on Thursday 23rd June at 7pm at LARC. Some videos and pictures will be shown. The discussion will be followed by a brief London NoBorders meeting.

This is the seventh in a series of reports from a NoBorders activist in Lampedusa (Read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 ).

Yesterday was another day of deportations.

In the morning about 700 migrants were brought in a big ferry boat directed somewhere in Italy.

It seems that the day before the mayor had called Berlusconi complaining that the deportations were causing disorders in the island.

In fact as soon as they arrived in Tunisia, some of the Tunisians that were deported at noon called the others in the detention centre to let them know. For that reason they started a fire and some of them run away. Someone is still missing.

About 200 Tunisians were left in the detention centre. At noon another 30 Tunisians where chosen at random to be deported. When they arrived at the airport were happy like kids which believe to a promise. They were repeating "No Tunisia, Milan", because they had been told they would be brought in Milan. They passed very close to me so I had the chance to tell them that actually they were going back to Tunis. As the news spread in the group, they refused to go inside the airport. The 30 Tunisians were surrounded by lots of riot police and many journalists were present. The policemen tried to convince the Tunisians that they were really going to Milan. The Tunisians were crying, shouting, asking why they were bringing them to Tunisia. They said they came because they do not have bread in their country and because they were fed up. It took almost two hours before all the Tunisians decided to get on the plane. The very last ones that accepted to go on the plane, shouted at us that they would come back.

In the evening, around 7.30 pm, about 160 Tunisians arrived. After that, we went to the airport to wait for the deportees to arrive. Unfortunately this time they were brought to the airport from an alternative entrance, so we saw them just from far away. They went on the plane handcuffed and accompanied by two cops each.

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.

This is the fifth in a series of reports from a NoBorders activist in Lampedusa. (Read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 ).

The island is almost free from migrants.
There are about 70 Tunisians left in the detention centre, plus about 50 that just arrived a few hours ago.
Yesterday, following the agreement between Italy and Tunisia, about 30 migrants were deported from here to Tunis by plane.

The Italian Government has decided to give a temporary permit to stay to all the north african migrants that arrived between the 1st of January and the 5th of April. This is a quite arbitrary and iscriminatory decision that is meant to legitimise the next mass deportation.

It seems that tonight the migrants detained in the detention centre organised some protests. It is quite difficult for us at the moment to connect with the migrants inside the detention centre as they are not allowed to go out as it used to be a few days ago. Besides today the police stopped us quite far from the detention centre when we tried to get close, while up to a couple of days ago we were able to go really close to the fences.

This is the fourth in a series of reports from a NoBorders activist in Lampedusa. (Read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 ).

Two weeks passed since the last time I had some spare time to write a report. Sorry.

In this two weeks the situation was so mad that we could barely have time to sleep: the migrants in Lampedusa went up to about 7000 according to the official numbers...

Since the overcrowded Detention centre had no space left, people were left to sleep roughly in a small hill between the port and the airport. They soon started to build tents with any kind of material they could find around.

They had just a few toilets. Almost no blankets and no food a part from what the people were giving them.

This is the third in a series of reports from a NoBorders activist in Lampedusa. (Read Part 1 and Part 2 ).

Yesterday [20/03/11] we woke up around 7 because someone was shouting from a megaphone on a car telling people to go and occupy the port to stop the arrival of red cross tents probably for at least 10000 people. The woman at the megaphone is one of the locals that want to save the economy in Lampedusa and want that the Tunisian are transferred somewhere else in Italy. We went there to check what was happening. The people of Lampedusa always try to explain to the Tunisians that they are not against them and they just want them to be transferred quickly anywhere else in Italy. They also wanted the Tunisians to join but most of them were too scared to get in trouble.

At the end they had to let they unload the tents because otherwise the ferry boat would not leave with their fishes and it would have been a problem for the many fishermen.

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.