Thread: Italy warns of immigrant crisis from Libya, Tunisia

Italy warns of immigrant crisis from Libya, Tunisia

Updated 1h 39m ago |

ROME (AP) — Italy warned Monday that it was facing a refugee and humanitarian emergency, with some 15,000 Tunisians having arrived in recent weeks and fears that the start of U.S. and European airstrikes on Libya could unleash even more migrants.

By Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told a news conference that some 200 Libyans from the eastern part of the country had arrived overnight in Catania, Sicily, marking the first major influx from Libya to Italy since the revolt began over a month ago.

But it appeared Maroni's information was incorrect: Officials from Catania's port, police, carabinieri and financial police all refused to confirm initial reports on the ANSA news agency that 191 Libyans had arrived.

These officials spoke instead of Egyptians, with Egyptian passports and currency, and subsequent news reports indicated that the Egyptians had told officials they were Libyan so they could obtain refugee status.

Italy has been sending back the vast majority of Tunisians and Egyptians who have arrived in recent weeks, saying they don't qualify for asylum or refugee status since there are no wars or humanitarian crises in their countries.

Italy has demanded Europe as a whole share the burden of coping with the immigration flows, saying it shouldn't be expected to cope alone. As it is, the number of Tunisians on the tiny island of Lampedusa — 4,800 as of Monday — was almost the size of the 5,000-strong population itself.

Lampedusa's residents are getting increasingly angry over the government's failure to help ease their burden. They have refused plans to set up a tent camp on the island, saying the migrants should be taken elsewhere.

Maroni said several measures would be taken in the coming days to try to stem the flow and ease the burden on Lampedusa: He planned to visit Tunis on Wednesday to press for a resumption of treaty agreements and border controls to stem the tide of migrants.

He also said an Italy navy ship would be sent to Lampedusa to transport migrants off the island to holding centers elsewhere in Italy. And he announced compensation measures for the island, whose economy is driven by tourism. Fears are mounting that the approaching high tourist season will be irreparably harmed by the immigration crisis.

In Geneva, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday that the number of civilians fleeing Libya has decreased since the start of the allied air strikes as people take a "wait and see" approach to the rapidly changing situation on the ground.

Almost 318,000 people have fled to neighboring Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Niger since the start of the unrest in February, said a spokeswoman at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Late last week, as rebel towns were being pounded by government troops, the stream of civilians crossing into Egypt alone reached 3,000 a day.

Following Friday's U.N. Security Council decision to impose a no-fly zone, the number fell to about 1,500 a day, said UNHCR spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes.

"For the Libyans that came out on Friday and Saturday, many of them were doing it in a kind of wait-and-see policy and some decided to go back in," she said.

Elizabeth Tan, a UNHCR official stationed on the Egyptian border, said confidence is growing among Libyans that the air strikes may halt the Libyan government forces' advance on the rebels' eastern strongholds. "Today is very quiet," she said in a telephone interview.

On Libya's western border with Tunisia, refugee numbers also are down.

A UNHCR official there, Firas Kayal, said between 1,000 and 1,500 people are now arriving daily in Tunisia from Libya. Most are foreign nationals, including citizens from other Arab countries, sub-Saharan Africa and Bangladesh, he said.

Wilkes warned that while the exodus from Libya may be slowing, the number of civilians displaced inside the country is a growing concern. Government forces have destroyed large numbers of homes, prompting people to seek shelter in schools and other public buildings that lack basic facilities such as mattresses and blankets, she said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011 ... titialskip

Italy's Frattini: If Ghadafi Falls, Refugees Will Overwhelm Europe
Written by R. Cort Kirkwood
Monday, 07 March 2011 09:19
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php ... elm-europe

If the Libyan government collapses, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini (photo, left) has warned, Europe may suffer an influx of many as 800,000 refugees.
Frattini told London’s Telegraph that an exodus of biblical proportions was on the horizon should the dictatorial regime of Moammar Ghadafi fall to the revolutionaries fighting his forces:

We know what to expect when the Libyan national system falls — a wave of 200,000 to 300,000 immigrants. These are estimates, and on the low side ... It is a Biblical exodus. It’s a problem that no Italian should underestimate.

Frattini said a third of Libya’s 2.5 million people are immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa who will flee the country if Ghadafi falls. Already, thousands of those immigrants are heading for Tunisia. Last week, the New York Times reported that 90,000 refugees were trying to cross into Tunisia.

Ghadafi The Border Guard

Ghadafi, Speigel Online reported in late February, “has enjoyed a cynical role as Europe's border guard against African immigrants.â€