Migrant pressure eases on Italian island as political tensions rise

Italian authorities were transferring thousands of migrants off the tiny island of Lampedusa on Friday, after record arrivals that sparked fresh debate over how Europe shares responsibility for asylum seekers.
Men, women and children lined up in the sun to take buses and vans to the port, where some were later seen preparing to board ships to the larger island of Sicily, where they will be transferred to migrant processing centres.
Lampedusa, just around 145km off the coast of Tunisia, has long been a landing point for migrant boats from North Africa.
But this week its migration centre - built for fewer than 400 people - was overwhelmed after some 8,500 people arrived in 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday, according to the UN migration agency - more than the entire local population.
Images of thousands of people sleeping in the open air, scaling the perimeter fence and wandering around Lampedusa town sparked anger among members of Italy’s hard-right government, with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini calling the arrivals an “act of war”.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni argues the European Union must do more to help tackle migration, a message repeated by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Friday, who said Rome would take measures but “action by Italy is not enough.”
Mass migration is also a key political issue in other EU capitals ahead of European Parliament elections in June.
In France, members of the far-right said the government should not allow any migrants from Lampedusa across the border - to which President Emmanuel Macron responded by calling for European solidarity.
“I consider it the responsibility of the entire EU to stand alongside Italy,” Macron said, adding that “strictly nationalist policies have their limits”.
Germany earlier this week confirmed it had stopped accepting migrants living in Italy under a European solidarity plan aimed at easing pressure on EU border nations. It was a “signal to Italy” after Rome last year temporarily suspended EU rules on accepting migrants, a government spokesman said on Friday - adding that Berlin could resume taking migrants “if Italy fulfils its obligations to take back refugees”.
Lampedusa’s migrant centre has struggled for years to cope with the arrivals, with humanitarian organisations reporting a lack of water, food and medical care.