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Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has described the arrival of thousands of boat migrants on the small Mediterranean island of Lampedusa as an “act of war”.

“It is not a spontaneous episode, it is of course organised, financed and prepared,” the politician from the right-wing populist Lega party told journalists at an event on Wednesday evening.

Since the beginning of the week, more than 8,000 boat migrants have reached the island between Sicily and North Africa. More than 5,000 people arrived on Tuesday alone. Due to its proximity to the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax, Lampedusa has been one of the hotspots of migration to Europe for years.

Chaotic conditions in camps

Currently, approximately 6,800 people are staying in the first shelter. The municipality of Lampedusa, which also includes the neighboring island of Linosa, has a population of almost 6,500 (as of July 2023). The island is only about 20 square kilometers in size.

The situation reached a peak on Wednesday evening in the extremely overcrowded camp on the island, which is actually only designed for 400 people. There would have been chaotic conditions during the distribution of food and drinks. People had already tried to leave the port and break barriers. The Italian Red Cross warned of a humanitarian crisis.

It was no coincidence that so many people arrived within 24 hours, Salvini continued. He emphasized that the arrivals were “something that was organized, also to get a government into trouble.” This is now being discussed within the coalition. Since October 2022, Italy has been ruled by a right-wing alliance led by ultra-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

(yam/sda/dpa)