MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2020) Nearly 200 asylum seekers have arrived on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa via sea from Northern Africa, exacerbating the accommodation crisis amid overcrowded facilities and coronavirus-impelled need to self-isolate, media in Italy reported on Monday.
The ANSA news agency said the irregular migrants had arrived on eight different boats overnight and were taken to a Lampedusa quarantine facility, originally designed for 95 people and currently accommodating 910, the newcomers included.
According to the report, illegal migrant arrivals in Italy sharply increased in recent weeks, straining the Italian authorities' capacity to provide decent quarantine space for all. There were also concern-provoking cases when groups of migrants escaped the quarantine facilities, where they were supposed to spend 14 days, as per the Italian government's regulation.
Some regions, such as the Sicilian province of Agrigento, will reportedly begin using boats to quarantine migrants amid the shortage of onshore accommodation.
Italy has traditionally been one of the most popular countries among irregular migrants from northern Africa to try to cross into the European Union via the Mediterranean Sea. Even the fact that Italy emerged as Europe's worst coronavirus outbreak did not seem to dissuade the Mediterranean migration traffic.
