Lampedusa
6th July 2013
Back in 2011 we posted extensive coverage of the “Camp of the Saints” crisis in Italy and Malta in the wake of the Arab Spring, as hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants flooded into the islands of the southern Mediterranean and the southern coasts of Italy and Sicily.
The flood of refugees abated somewhat in 2012, but is still ongoing. During the migration season — the summer months, when the Med is fairly calm — hundreds of people in rickety boats show up off the coast of Lampedusa and have to be rescued, housed, clothed, and fed, according to EU asylum regulations. No matter that they riot, vandalize, commit robberies, and terrorize the locals — they are “refugees”, and their needs come first.