LAMPEDUSA - “At least five people, among them one child, drowned when their boat capsized, while survivors were brought to shore by fishermen,” said Safa Msehli, a spokesperson for the UN’s International Organisation for Immigration (IOM), in a tweet on Monday morning.

  This is just the latest tragedy in a series of increasingly frequent attempts at the perilous crossing from the shores of North Africa to Europe. Thousands are being driven out of their country every day by conflict and poverty, trying to escape the detention camps along the coast where they face violence and exploitation.

  Msehli also added that “more than 700 migrants were intercepted [on Sunday] off Libya by the coast guard.” On Sunday she explained that “they face a fate similar to that of thousands of other vulnerable people attempting to flee the country: detention, extortion and abuse.” 

  Those that aren’t intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard, and brought back to where they had tried to escape, face the long journey to the shores of Southern Europe more often than not in a small rubber dinghy, dangerously overloaded and unequipped to survive the rough conditions. So far 600 lives have been lost in the Mediterranean this year, three times more than in the same period of 2020, according to Msehli.

  In a 24 hour period over the weekend, 20 ships landed on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, disembarking a total of 2,128 people. Several boats were rescued by the port authority and fishing vessels are sending out distress signals a few miles from the Italian coast. Thousands of migrants had to be hurriedly evacuated to refugee centres in Sicily and quarantine boats around the island to ease the strain on the landings hotspot in Lampedusa. 

  This extreme rise in numbers, thought to be caused by recent better sailing conditions, brought the migrant crisis to the attention of many in Italy, and on Sunday Prime Minister Mario Draghi held a meeting with the Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese to discuss the creation of a committee to manage the situation.

  Writing on Facebook Giorgia Meloni, Fratelli d’Italia leader, said, “We don’t want to get used to this kind of news, illegal immigration must be stopped. We must stop the traffickers and the immigration NGOs who speculate on tragedies. As Fratelli d’Italia we continue to ask the minister Lamorgese for an immediate naval blockade.”

  Lampedusa Mayor Totò Martello, meanwhile, said on Radio Cusano Campus, "I’m worried, also because we’re still in a state of emergency about Covid. We only talk about the problem when there are landings, but the question is much wider. We have to understand that we cannot act only in the moment they arrive, but also in the moment in which they depart [Libya]. Meloni talks about a naval blockade? She should do a field test to understand that what she says is not viable, unless we say that those who approach the Italian coast will be hit and sunk… Everyone is amazed, but if in Italy the phenomenon of migration is discussed only when there is an emergency or when there is an election campaign, we will never understand the magnitude of the phenomenon, and the problem we have to deal with.”

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