Euronews special report: Inside Lampedusa, a frontline island on edge
Italy is facing the biggest influx of migrants since 2017, with over 45,000 arrivals registered since the start of the year. Nowhere is this pressure more acutely felt than in Lampedusa, the small island located just 370 km away from Tunisia.
For the past two decades, Lampedusa has acted as the coveted destination for hundreds of thousands of migrants who routinely cross the dangerous sea route in a last-ditch attempt to leave behind the hardship of their home countries.
But on an island of 6,5000 inhabitants, the title of Europe’s gateway weighs too heavily: staff are exhausted, resources are drained and refugees are hosted in conditions that can scarcely be described as humane.
This is what our correspondent Monica Pinna found while exploring the island for a special episode of Euronews Witness. In just one day, Monica saw 21 boats with 800 migrants rescued at sea reach Lampedusa’s port. On the busiest days, this number can grow to 50 boats.
Inside the overcrowded reception centres, where asylum requests are supposed to be processed in a speedy manner, migrants face a prolonged wait and uncertain future.
“I’m so tired. I don’t eat well here. I can’t sleep. My father is dead,” said a 16-year-old migrant, speaking from behind the bars of a refugee camp.
“I came here to work, to get an education. I have my own dreams. I want to become a doctor.”
Her story is one of many: NGOs working on the ground have raised the alarm about a surge in the arrival of minors, some of whom cross the Mediterranean unaccompanied.
“From 2018 onwards the amount of available accommodation has decreased. The reception system for minors currently fails to meet their needs and has been depleted of resources,” Lisa Bjelogrlich, from Save the Children, told Monica.
To help local officials cope with the logistical challenge of hosting thousands of asylum-seekers, the hard-right coalition government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has declared a state of emergency. But, as Monica’s reporting proves, the legal change has done little to help frontline regions like Lampedusa, whose reception centre is systematically on the verge of collapse.
Meloni’s decision came on the heels of other measures her government has introduced to curb illegal migration, such as a controversial code of conduct that regulates the actions of NGOs vessels that conduct search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
Rome claims these charity organisations function as a “pull factor” that lures refugees, an interpretation forcefully contested by NGO workers, who argue they’re the ones doing the job left unattended by the national authorities and the European Union.
“The withdrawal of European actors and the criminalisation of NGOs committed to search and rescue missions created a huge vacuum in rescue operations,” said Tamino Böhm, the head of airborne operations at Sea-Watch. “Very often we spot boats in distress and then there’s no one to rescue and give assistance to the people.”
This perpetual atmosphere of high risks and dangerous routes often leads to tragedy. In late February, 89 migrants died when their boat sank while trying to land near the town of Crotone, in the Calabria region. The episode, which triggered a political crisis, added to a deatholl of 900 people who have lost their lives this year trying to cross the Central Mediterranean.
For Giusi Ncolini, the former mayor of Lampedusa and a promoter of integration, disasters like Crotone’s are partially explained by the strong focus that Meloni’s executive has put on the reinforcement of borders, rather than on the management of arrivals.
“The war on sea rescue NGOs, and the abandoning of rescue operations in the Mediterranean has become increasingly evident with the centre-right government,” Ncolini said. “And it is increasingly clear that, in order not to prevent them from arriving, they prefer to let them die.”
 Watch the special episode of Euronews Witness.
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