A wave of migrants is arriving, the accommodation system on its last legs
Four other landings of migrants in Lampedusa where 163 landed at the Favaloro pier. This brings the number of boats arrived to 7 from midnight for a total of 299 people. StIn the last 4 boats there were 46 migrants (including 18 women and 4 minors) from Mali, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Guinea, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, 37 (7 women and 2 minors) of the same nationalities, 35 (4 women and one minor) from Cameroon and 45 (including 14 women) from Nigeria and Benin. They were all taken to the hotspot where there are 881 guests, compared to just under 400 places available.
But according to several reports, a real wave is coming. And the mayors are asking for help, as Repubblica explains. “«Accommodation facilities of any kind, disused hotels, camps, boarding houses, holiday homes or the like currently unused», but also «houses and apartments owned by free and unused private citizens to be leased at market prices for the reception of applicants for international protection»”.
As Repubblica explains, “with almost 112,000 migrants in centers throughout Italy (the highest figure since 2019), the first and second reception system, poorly managed and without planning for years, imploded under the pressure of the more than 27,000 people who landed in the first three months of the year. And so the prefects write to the mayors, the mayors appeal to their communities and in turn write to the government. Loudly asking that what is looming as an impending emergency for the summer to finally be managed in a structural way”.
Occhiuto: “I’m worried, Calabria risks being overwhelmed”
“I don’t want to hide my concern. Calabria risks being overwhelmed in the coming months” by waves of landings of migrants after “already in the last few weeks the pressure has been high”. This was stated by Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria Region, in an interview with ‘Corriere della Sera’ in which he recalls “the numbers. In 2022 18 thousand migrants arrived here. In reality, many more because they often arrive here in dribs and drabs. The other day a fishing boat arrived in Roccella Jonica. A there were 650 migrants on board, without any warning from Frontex”.
Occhiuto complains that “apart from the Cara of Crotone, it is not that in Calabria the State has a great presence on this issue. I hope that help can arrive so as not only to be able to cope with a difficult situation, but also to turn it into an opportunity”.
“On Tuesday I will bring in a provision to offer the possibility for the survivors of Cutro to be employed in construction companies. The Region with its training resources will prepare these people for the new job. Even in a region with a high unemployment rate like Calabria – he concludes – in some jobs immigrants can be an opportunity”.
From Modena: “Concrete answers are needed”. The mayors are asking for vacant houses and hotels
“We ask the Government to deal with the migrant situation with extreme urgency, verifying together concrete answers and practicable solutions. Modena is an inclusive and welcoming city, but it is objectively impossible to manage what has been happening in recent weeks and months. It is essential and very urgent for us to activate an emergency table at the Prefecture with the involvement of all institutional levels operating in the Modena area”. To say it, even more in the light of the latest episodes that have occurred in the city, is the mayor of Modena Gian Carlo Muzzarelli who, after the latest information ascertained during a meeting convened by the Province of Modena in the late afternoon of yesterday, Friday 31 March, with the premises in the Modena area, sent a letter to the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and to the Interior Ministry Matteo Piantedosi.
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