Lampedusa records record number of migrant arrivals with more than 50 boats in a single day

A daily record of more than a thousand migrants arrived this past Saturday in half a hundred boats to the Italian island of Lampedusa, one of the hot spots of the dangerous migration along the Mediterranean route, Italian authorities have confirmed to the Rai channel.

To the boats arriving at Lampedusa — up from the previous record of 36 in a single day — must be added those that reached Marettimo and Pantelleria, up to a total of almost 2,000 people in a single day, according to ‘Il Giornale’.

The Lampedusa refugee camp is again overcrowded, with more than 1,500 occupants for a total capacity of 350, although in the last few hours the immediate transfer of 250 people at the disposal of the prefecture of Agrigento has begun.

Until last Thursday, when the landings were stopped due to bad sea and strong wind, there were 340 migrants in the camp.

Migrant landings also continue on the coasts of southern Sardinia. In the last 36 hours 84 have arrived, in addition to the 132 others who arrived on August 26 and 27.

In addition to these figures, the rescue ships of the NGOs Sos Mediterranée and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the ‘Ocean Viking’ and the ‘Geo Barents’ respectively, have announced the rescues of some 236 people during seven rescue operations carried out in the last few hours in the central Mediterranean.