Migrants break out of overcrowded Italian facility
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Migrants stand behind the main gate of a holding centre on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa in this June 22, 2007 file photo. More than 1,000 asylum-seekers and would-be immigrants broke out of an Italian reception centre on the island of Lampedusa on Saturday and marched to the town hall a day after the U.N. criticised conditions at the camp. Police said the group forced open the gates of the camp and marched peacefully to the nearby town centre.
REUTERS/Tony Gentil/Files (ITALY)Migrants break out of overcrowded Italian facility
ROME – Hundreds of migrants and refugees broke out of an overcrowded immigration facility on a Sicilian island Saturday to protest their treatment, authorities said.
About 600 people forced open the gates at the facility and marched toward the center of the island of Lampedusa before making their way back, according officials at the facility and news reports.
About 2,000 people have been crammed into a facility built for 850.
Just this week the U.N. refugee agency criticized Italy over conditions there, saying many people sleep outdoors under plastic sheeting and urging authorities to address the "difficult humanitarian situation."
TV footage Saturday showed the migrants marching in the tiny streets of the island, chanting "Freedom! Freedom!" and waving to cameras. They joined a demonstration by residents of Lampedusa, who were protesting government plans to open another shelter on the island.
Illegal immigrants take part in a demonstration in the centre of Lampedusa. Hundreds of illegal immigrants broke out of their holding centre and staged a dramatic protest against their plight in Italy's Lampedusa island Saturday before returning to the facility.
(AFP/Mauro Seminara)The residents don't want the island to be associated solely with immigrant arrivals, saying it should be returned to its role as a tourist destination. The government said the new center would speed up identification of the migrants and their possible deportation.
Despite the migrants having forced open the gate, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that the migrants are free to leave the center, so police did not intervene. The ministry said the migrants returned to the facility after several hours.
"Those who arrive there are free to move, it's not a concentration camp," Roberto Maroni, the interior minister, was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.
Thousands of illegal immigrants reach Italy every year by crossing over from North Africa on rickety boats. Many land in Lampedusa, a small island closer to North Africa than to mainland Europe.
Once there, they must prove they have a job awaiting them or be expelled.
The conservative government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been cracking down on immigration, which many Italians link to crime.
Maroni said recently that the migrants would be repatriated directly from Lampedusa, without being transferred to another center on the Italian mainland, as had been the practice. That would minimize risks that that some would slip away and escape, he said.
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A map locating the Italian island of Lampedusa. Hundreds of illegal immigrants broke out of their holding centre and staged a dramatic protest against their plight in Italy's Lampedusa island Saturday before returning to the facility.
(AFP/Graphic)
Illegal immigrants take part in a demonstration in the centre of Lampedusa. Hundreds of illegal immigrants broke out of their holding centre and staged a dramatic protest against their plight in Italy's Lampedusa island Saturday before returning to the facility.
(AFP/Mauro Seminara)
Would-be immigrants sit on the port bench after being intercepted by coastguards off the coast of Lampedusa island on December 26, 2008. Italy threatened Monday to speed up repatriation of would-be immigrants after some 2,300 sought to reach its shores in just two days, and Maltese rescuers plucked another boatload from rough seas.
(AFP/File/Mauro Seminara)
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