LAMPEDUSA -- With the arrival of September, there has been a new influx of migrants to the South of Italy from Libya, Egypt and other North-African countries, totalling around 13,000 people over the last four days, officials said Thursday.

 The last few days have seen chaos in the South: over 1,000 migrants have arrived at Lampedusa, which is now fit to burst, and its welcome centre that is equipped to receive a few hundred people, is not coping well. Another 1067 people have disembarked at Palermo’s port from the Garibaldi rescue ship, and 617 were rescued from the Sicilian channel to be taken to Cagliari. Monday alone, the number of people arriving totalled 3,000. Many amongst these are women and children, some heavily pregnant.

 Three corpses were also found aboard an inflatable boat heading towards Italy, by the crew of an NGO’s rescue boat that operates in the sea between Libya and Sicily, managing to bring 410 people to safety so far. Many emergency medical and help tents have been set up in the areas, with a reinforced police presence in order to try to identify potential traffickers.

 Matteo Salvini, a Lega Nord minister, says that “It is urgent to halt this invasion, otherwise Italians will be forced to take justice into their own hands. From now on, let us just let in women and children, and turn down the men: everyone should go back to their own homes.”

 However, despite these huge incoming waves of immigrants, Matteo Renzi has said that the country is “not at breaking point”, even though he stresses that it is a clear problem that is being tackled, in a press conference held together with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

 “Europe must work together to find ways of sending back some of those who do not have the right to be here. We need to save human lives but we know that there are also limits,” added Renzi.

 According to EU data, 1,020 migrants have been transferred from Italy to other countries out of the 39,600 migrants that are predicted to arrive by September 2017. In comparison, 3,435 migrants to Greece were relocated to other countries out of 66,400, a much more significant percentage.

 The data also reveals that the countries who have received the most migrants from Italy have been France, taking 231, Holland 178, and Portugal 171. Even Malta will play its small part and take a few, says its Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. Renzi wanted to publicly acknowledge “small gestures of solidarity.” Germany, for the moment, has received only 20.

 nkd