EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrived on the island of Lampedusa on Sunday morning amid growing tensions related to a surge in migrant arrivals.
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00:00 Seeing for themselves at first hand the small boats abandoned in Lampedusa's Favaloro Cay
00:07 by migrants who've crossed from Africa. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
00:12 was invited here by Italy's Prime Minister after a week in which more than 8,000 migrants
00:18 came ashore on the small Sicilian island.
00:21 We are faced with such a large number of migratory flows that if we don't work seriously and
00:29 all together on the contrast of illegal departures, the numbers of this phenomenon will first
00:36 affect the border states but then all the others.
00:41 With Italy at the sharp end of the migrant crisis there were promises of support from
00:45 Brussels.
00:48 Migration is a European challenge and it needs a European answer and solution. It is concrete
00:56 actions that will bring change on the ground. It is only through solidarity and unity that
01:03 we can achieve this and you can count on the European Union.
01:09 But the scale of the crisis is testing that unity. The Italian government says 127,000
01:15 people have made the crossing to Italy this year, twice as many as in the same period
01:20 last year.
01:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]