Thread: Boat migrants reaching Italy tip record

Boat migrants reaching Italy tip record

Steve Scherer, Reuters November 29, 2016 12:06am

A record number of migrants have reached Italy by boat from North Africa in 2016, according to official data, as pressure on Italy's shelter and asylum systems grows.

Italy has borne the brunt of new arrivals since the implementation in March of an agreement between the European Union and Turkey to curb the flow of migrants sailing for Greece.

As of November 28, 171,299 boat migrants had reached Italy's shores, the Interior Ministry said, compared to the previous record of 170,100 for all of 2014.

There is no sign of a let-up in people crossing.

Some 1400 more migrants were rescued from rubber and wooden boats attempting to cross the central Mediterranean during Monday, Italy's coast guard said.

In the past three years, Italy has recorded nearly half a million migrant arrivals. Many have fled war, poverty or political oppression.

The influx has brought a record number of asylum requests this year in Italy where more than 176,000 asylum seekers now live in shelters.

While there had been hope that a government formed in Tripoli in March would help stop people smuggling, it has not. Libya remains fertile ground for traffickers as local militias and a rival government in Tobruk compete for power.

Most of the migrants who have come to Italy this year are Africans of various nationalities. Some 36,000 Nigerians have made the trip, about 21 per cent of the total, along with 20,000 Eritreans and more than 12,000 from Guinea.

An estimated 4663 migrants have died in the Mediterranean this year as a record number of unaccompanied minors have come to Italy.

As of the end of October, almost 23,000 unaccompanied minors -- mostly teenage boys -- had arrived, compared with 13,000 during the whole of 2014.

During the more stormy winter months, arrivals in the past have dropped, but rescuers are concerned this year that there will not be enough vessels to go to their aid.



Boat migrants reaching Italy tip record - News.com.au

Drop 'em all at the Vatican. They can set up a tent city on those beautiful gated courtyards. The priests can feed them and empty the port-a-potties.

2016 sees most asylum seekers arriving in Italy by boat in recent years

Xinhua | Updated: 2016-11-29 13:15

Migrants disembark from the rescue vessel Responder, a rescue boat run by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station and the Italian Red Cross, in the Italian harbor of Vibo Marina, Italy, October 22, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

GENEVA - This year has seen the largest number of asylum seekers that have crossed into Italy by boat in recent years on record, according to statistics released recently by the UN refugee agency and the Italian government.

Since the start of the year, close to 171,000 people have arrived in the European country from North Africa, topping the previous record of 170,000 set in 2014.

The flow of migration in the eastern Mediterranean between Turkey and Greece has been greatly reduced after Ankara stepped up border policing and closed a humanitarian corridor between Greece and Germany.

European countries are using navy frigates to arrest smugglers in international waters. Yet the effort has failed to cut migration in the central Mediterranean between Libya and Italy, while the Italian route has become the main migrant gateway into Europe.

Libya's civil war has weakened the country's law enforcement agencies, thus leaving European governments alone in the fight against illegal migration.

The majority of migrants bound for Italy are fleeing poverty, conflicts and wars in Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan and Gambia. The Syrian refugees no longer use the Libyan route.

According to the International Organization for Migration and the UN refugee agency, at least 4,690 migrants are confirmed to have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean so far this year.


2016 sees most asylum seekers arriving in Italy by boat in recent years ...

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