A wave of migrant arrivals swarmed the isle of Lampedusa from May 27-28. The shelter hotspot, once empty, now houses 289 individuals.
On May 27, 53 migrants, ten of them minors, landed in Lampedusa after a patrol ship intercepted their 10-meter-long vessel. The migrants from Bangladesh, Egypt, and Syria claimed they embarked from Tajura, Libya.
Their boat was confiscated, and the group was transported to the Contrada Imbriacola shelter hotspot, now crowded following instructions from the Prefecture of Agrigento.
An additional 93 migrants reached the island on May 27 after the finance police intercepted three dinghies. Among them were two women and 117 minors, stating they were from Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and Tunisia.
During the night of May 28, 143 more migrants arrived on Lampedusa. After four dinghies were rescued by patrol boats, groups varied from nine to 58 people, including roughly a dozen minors.
All were brought to the Contrada Imbriacola hotspot, which now harbors 289 guests as of May 28 morning, including six unaccompanied minors.
Tragically, the mortal remains of a minor migrant, found on the rescue ship Humanity 1 by SOS Humanity, were transported to Lampedusa with the minor’s family on a coast guard vessel.
Humanity 1 rescued around a hundred migrants on May 27 from two boats in Libyan SAR waters, with the minor’s body discovered on one of the vessels.
The NGO ship will bypass Lampedusa’s port and sail to the designated safe port in Livorno instead.
