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Six more boatloads of migrants, mostly Libyans, arrived at the Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday, exacerbating a refugee crisis that already appears to have ended the long-standing Schengen arrangement for passport-free movement around Europe.
In Italy, which has born the brunt of waves of migrants fleeing turmoil first in Tunisia and now Libya, key members of the government were again warning about the repercussions of Nato's bombing campaign across the Mediterranean.
"For this reason we have continually pressed for a strong diplomatic response to the situation in Libya," said Italy's interior minister Roberto Maroni, of the anti-immigration Northern League party, who has repeatedly called for an end to Italy's role in Nato air raids. "Otherwise there is no way to stop the boats."
Ignazio Accomando, from the National Institute for the Health of Migrants, told the Ansa news agency: "About 2,000 migrants are expected to arrive on the island. They are tired, worn out, dehydrated and with some bruises, but overall there are no particularly grave health cases."
The UN warned yesterday that one in 10 migrants fleeing Libya by sea is likely to die during the crossing. The arrival of tens of thousands of North Africans has caused political fall-out across Europe with the EU preparing to reintroduce passport checks among Schengen-zone countries, after pressure from France and Italy. The cracks in the Schengen zone appeared to widen this week when Denmark decided to reinstate controls on its borders with Germany and Sweden to clamp down, it said, on drug and weapons smuggling.
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