Italian Humanitarian groups rush to help migrants as number of new arrivals continues to rise

Humanitarian groups are rushing to help thousands of migrants arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Transcript

00:00 On Thursday, migrant landings increased again on the island of Lampedusa after a short break

00:07 that only lasted for a couple of days.

00:09 Over 500 migrants arrived here in one day.

00:12 And with arrivals on the rise, which is often the case recently, the local reception centre

00:18 that's managed by the Italian Red Cross often ends up being overcrowded.

00:22 "We haven't found ourselves facing the real difficulty of having to manage large numbers

00:30 due to the impossibility of transfers.

00:31 These transfers happen regularly and allow us to balance departures with new arrivals.

00:39 We move around 110-120 units every day, which include Red Cross employees and volunteers

00:47 with various specialisations and various training courses."

00:51 Once they leave Lampedusa, migrants are distributed across the country.

00:54 Over 12,000 unaccompanied minors have arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year.

01:00 Among them there are many sub-Saharan people who flee from Tunisia.

01:03 "They often tell us about the violations, the abuses, the violence they suffered in

01:10 the months they spent in Tunisia before crossing the Mediterranean, or the violence they suffered

01:16 at the time of departure.

01:19 Many of them have told us that they were taken to the deserts, left in the desert or

01:25 on the borders towards Libya, and left there without water or food."

01:31 2023 will likely be remembered as the year with one of the highest numbers of migrant

01:36 landings.

01:37 The threshold of 100,000 was crossed a few days ago.

01:41 "Recently, the European Union and Tunisia have signed a memorandum on which the North

01:47 African government is committed to stopping migratory flows in exchange for over 100 million

01:53 euros.

01:54 However, according to the latest data, and perhaps differently from what the Italian

01:58 government hoped to obtain in the five weeks following the signing of the agreement, there

02:04 was no deterrent effect, that is, the number of arrivals has increased compared to the

02:10 period prior to the signing of the memorandum.

02:13 Giorgia Orlandi, Euronews, Lampedusa.

02:16 (whooshing)