On Wednesday, September 13, close to 7,000 migrants flooded the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa.
The migrants began arriving by boat causing a massive bottleneck.
This latest influx has brought the total number of migrants to 124,000 this year, almost double the figure from last year.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has sought to bring an end to the crisis with her successful campaign and $1 billion aid package offered to Tunisia in July.
It is clear that more needs to be done in order to combat this humanitarian crisis.
Hotspot #Lampedusa 13.09 anno 2023 – 7000 persone, molti uomini giovanissimi ammassati nel centro di Contrada Imbriacola. Una bomba ad orologeria che ricorda il 2011. Sono passati 12 anni ma la clessidra sembra tornare indietro nel tempo #migranti (Immagini esclusiva #Rainews24) pic.twitter.com/i5nnPZeLhw
— angela caponnetto (@AngiKappa) September 13, 2023
According to Angela Caponnetto from RaiNews, these boats had departed from Tunisia early Tuesday morning and over 120 had reached Lampedusa by Wednesday afternoon.
As a result, 6,800 migrants have now outnumbering the entire population of just under 6,300 people according to the official website for the island.
Poor weather conditions had apparently caused a backlog of boats which eventually wound up on Italian shores and resulted in one rescue operation gone wrong – a 5-month old baby drowned during transit.
Dan Kochis from The Heritage Foundation told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Tunisia has become a popular departure point for those seeking European entry due its close proximity near mainland Africa than Europe itself.
However, it seems like more action needs to be taken if we are going see any sort of change soon as many are still vulnerable at sea as well as other dangers they may face while arriving by boat or land such as trafficking or exploitation among other things.
The recent influx of migrants into Lampedusa is proof enough that there is serious need for increased attention towards addressing Europe’s migrant crisis before anything else worsens.
