In just 36 hours, dozens of makeshift boats, filled with African migrants, landed on the small Italian island of Lampedusa. While the registration camp does not exceed 400 places, it has had to cope with an influx of more than 6,000 people. That is the equivalent of its population. The Corriere della Sera lists nearly 7,000 migrants disembarked in one day, the RTBF 6,800.
Migrants queue at a bar on the Italian island of Lampedusa, September 13, 2023. Alessandro Serrano/AFP AFP or licensors
Italian police had to charge several times to contain the hundreds of migrants who asked to leave the dock, Le Figaro reported. Totally overwhelmed, the island declared a state of emergency. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced reinforcements at the Italian border.
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This exceptional influx of migrants has already made a victim: a five-month-old child died in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, after falling into the water, lamented on Facebook Filippo Mannino, the mayor of the island. Municipal mourning has been declared.
The Italian government "will do everything necessary to help the inhabitants of Lampedusa and the migrants who continue to arrive on the island", while "continuing to work to stop the arrivals", responded Antonio Tajani, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, on his account X (ex-Twitter). As many migrants as possible should be transferred to other Italian cities, in order to relieve the reception centre in Lampedusa.
"Migratory submersion"
Invited this Thursday morning on BFMTV, Marion Maréchal, speaks of "migratory submersion". "This is just the beginning. This shows the immense civilizational challenge that awaits us in the face of this migratory submersion. These boats are there because there are signals sent, "says the vice-president of Reconquest (the party of Eric Zemmour), head of the list in the European elections.
"When you combine the message of possible reward, generous access to social assistance, and access to nationality through the existence of the right of the soil, you encourage this immigration," continues the former MP.
Arrival of 6000,<> migrants in Lampedusa: "This is only the beginning", "we can talk about a migratory submersion", reacts @MarionMarechal pic.twitter.com/xVynWaHIXQ
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) September 14, 2023
Deeply Christian, Marion Maréchal nevertheless opposes the point of view of Pope Francis, who spoke of "shipwreck of our civilization" about "this policy that repels the foreigner". "I do not agree with Pope Francis who does too much politics for my taste, there are issues that he does not measure, assumes the candidate of the extreme right. It is not charitable to promise them a welcome and a job that we are no longer able to give them. They must be returned to their port of origin. »
Marion Maréchal would like to "make Frontex a real body for the protection of our (European) borders". She accuses Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, of turning it into "an NGO". Because according to her, the migration problem is not French, but European. "For a long time, it was believed that France was paying for its colonial past, but in reality all European countries are concerned."
From January to June, more than 2,000 people, including 289 children, died attempting to cross the Mediterranean. In total, about 118,500 migrants have arrived in Italy by boat since the beginning of the year, according to data from the Italian Interior Ministry. A figure that has almost doubled in one year: they were 64,529 during the same period in 2022.