After Greece chaos, now migrants head for Sicily
6,000 plucked to safety off the island in just three days
BAREFOOT, with only the clothes they stand in, these are some of the 6,000 migrants rescued off Sicily in just three days.
After being plucked from the sea or from rickety boats, they wait in line wrapped in brightly-coloured thermal blankets after getting off the vessel that has brought them to the Italian island.
The Norwegian ship recovered a total of 900 migrants, including 25 women and three children, and took them to Palermo. One Norwegian soldier ‘high-fived’ the new arrivals as they filed off the boat.
Thousands more migrants picked up in the Mediterranean were taken ashore simultaneously at other ports on the island.
Arrivals to Sicily have increased by 90 per cent in the first three months of the year. In the last three days alone, more than 6,000 migrants have arrived on its shores.
Official figures show nearly 20,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea since January, compared to just 10,000 during the same period in 2015. Almost 90 per cent landed in Sicily. There are fears that Sicily will now become ‘the new Lesbos’ as migrants desperate to get into Europe move West after the route via Greece was cut off.
Officials on the Italian island are braced for a repeat of the huge strain they found themselves under last summer when thousands arrived each day from North Africa.
The latest arrivals underwent health and identity checks on the Norwegian ship en route to Sicily. One navy officer dubbed the process a ‘taxi service’. When the ship opened its doors, hundreds of West Africans filed ashore and were given sandals, tracksuits and food before being taken by bus to reception centres under police guard.
The vast majority were men, including one who was seriously ill and a teenager who was wheelchair-bound and blind.
Italy is facing a fresh migration crisis as thousands of people attempt to cross the Mediterranean from Libya. Most of the arrivals are economic migrants from North Africa in search of a better life. But there are also warnings that Syrians unable to get to Europe via the Greek islands are shifting to the more dangerous central Mediterranean route.
The Egyptian navy picked up a group of 29 Syrians attempting to set off from Egypt on Wednesday – the first group to be recorded taking that route so far this year.
Austria yesterday said it is prepared to completely close its main border with Italy in case an influx of migrants leads to an ‘extreme situation’. Defence minister Hans Peter Doskozil said such a move at the Brenner crossing would be necessary if the Italian government refused to accept migrants turned back by Austria.
Mr Doskozil said Austria, which has announced a cap of 37,500 asylum applications this year after receiving 90,000 in 2015, has already registered between 16,000 and 17,000 claims since the start of January.
The EU’s £4.7billion deal with Turkey to deport all arrivals into Greece has led to a massive reduction in the numbers travelling via there. However, aid agencies have complained about how the migrants are being kept in detention centres as they wait to be sent back to prevent them absconding.
Human Rights Watch said among the 4,000 locked up on the islands of Lesbos and Chios are unaccompanied children, pregnant women and the elderly. The group said none had proper access to health care.
Pope Francis will visit the detention centre on Lesbos tomorrow as part of a tour of the island. Corbyn: EU migration isn’t too
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