ROME, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A group of 73 migrants have been rescued on Monday by the Guardia di Finanza, an Italian law enforcement agency responsible for countering financial crime and smuggling.
The passengers of the boat, mainly from Bangladesh, were brought to the neighbouring Italian Island of Lampedusa.
Lampedusa, located just a 100 km away from Tunisia, has been known for being one of the main gateways to Europe, since well before the start of the latest wave of trans-Mediterranean migration in 2011.
Over the past five months, the situation has worsened on the Island.
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, 13,000 people have managed to reach Italy since the start of 2021.
That’s three times what the country experienced in 2019.
Since May 8th , over 2,200 people have arrived on Lampedusa, adding to already crowded receptions centers.
A situation that prompted further calls from the Italian authorities to revive migrant burden-sharing deals with its EU partners, signed in 2019.
Italy Prime Minister Mario Draghi said “active talks are ongoing with Germany and France to revive” the so-called Malta agreement, under which a number of EU countries agreed in 2019 to share the number of migrants who arrive in Italy or Malta.
But the Malta deal has been suspended with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The priority in the short run is to contain migration pressure in the summer months,” Draghi also said, calling for “more intense cooperation” from Libya and Tunisia and tighter controls of their land and sea borders. — NNN-AGENCIES
