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Italy urges Libya to tighten borders as concerns grow
over illegal immigrants The centre-right Italian government yesterday urged Libya to make greater efforts to stem a rising tide of illegal immigrants into Italy, as authorities on the island of Sicily reported the arrival of yet another boat-load of people. Italy's foreign ministry summoned the Libyan chargé d'affaires in Rome and asked for "an urgent and tangible signal" that Libya would tighten its border controls, particularly on the North African coastline, the starting point of many migrants' journeys across the Mediterranean. Last Sunday, in what Italian officials said was the largest influx of illegal immigrants to arrive on a single vessel, 478 people packed on a 25-metre-long boat landed before dawn on the tiny island of Lampedusa, 200km south-west of Sicily. Two more boats carrying a total of 300 people arrived only hours later, one on Lampedusa and the other on Sicily. The Sicilian police said 20 more migrants had come ashore yesterday after guiding a rubber speedboat past coastguard patrols. The arrivals are putting a severe strain on immigration reception centres on the Italian islands, particularly Lampedusa, where a compound designed to hold 190 people was overflowing last weekend with as many as 900 immigrants. Italian authorities say many illegal immigrants come from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia in the Horn of Africa, and pass through Libya on their journey to Italy by sea. Italy regards the majority as economic rather than political refugees and has passed laws making it easier to deport them. Some nevertheless avoid that fate and join relatives and friends elsewhere in Europe. Dozens of others have died over the past two years while trying to cross the sea. Rocco Buttiglione, a government minister who will shortly become Italy's next European commissioner with responsibility for immigration, is proposing to build reception centres in North Africa, partly funded by European governments. These would hold would-be migrants before they cross the Mediterranean. According to Italian government figures, a crackdown on illegal immigration has brought significant results over the past year. Between July 2003 and June 2004, the number of illegal immigrants arriving in southern Italy fell to 9,985 from 19,294 in the previous 12-month period. However, the fall largely reflects a sharp drop in the number of arrivals from Albania and Turkey. Migrants are still coming from Libya, a point that Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister, raised last month when he visited Tripoli for talks with Libyan leaders |