The Italian government answered pleas from the island's mayor by removing some people from camps there. The migrants, 220 of whom were infected with COVID-19, will quarantine on large ferries before disembarking in Sicily.
Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said, regarding migrant arrivals on Italian shores, that the authorities “certainly can't stop the boats by sinking them," and said the strategy is to work with countries of origin to stop departures.
Lampedusa Mayor Totò Martello postponed a general strike on the Sicilian island, which had been called to protest the increase of migrant arrivals, after Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte invited Martello to Rome together with Sicily Governor Nello Musumeci, to discuss how to manage migrant reception.
Some tourists on the island of Lampedusa gave their accounts of the migrant crisis on the island, which for many of the tourists, is a non-existent one. Some of the tourists said the migrants on the island are like "ghosts" because although the media talks about them, they aren't seen.
The Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy (FCEI) is appealing for the opening of legal European channels for migrants, following the massive arrival that took place on Lampedusa during the night between Saturday and Sunday.
At least four migrants died and another five were injured when a fire broke out on a migrant boat close to the southern coast of Italy on Sunday, police and health officials said. Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants arrived on Lampedusa over the weekend.
Lampedusa officials are struggling to cope as more and more migrants reach the island, pushing its only reception center to its limits. The local mayor slammed the government's "frightening silence" on the issue.
Sicily's regional governor Nello Musumeci published a decree on Sunday, August 23 calling for all migrant hotspots and welcome centers to be closed down from midnight on Monday, August 24 if they could not meet the adequate health conditions required to protect people against the transmission of COVID-19.
A total of 1,400 migrants and refugees are currently on Lampedusa. Hundreds arrived in small boats last week. Migrant reception facilities on the Italian island have been overcrowded for several weeks.
As the Lampedusa hotspot becomes more overcrowded, Italian regional governors are protesting the transfer of migrants who arrived on the island to their regions. Meanwhile, a quarantine ship docked at Lampedusa is to take around 250 migrants on board.
Amid growing tensions in Italy due to an increase in migrant arrivals, the Italian government has launched a new call for tenders to find a second ship to use for quarantining migrants arriving in the country. Meanwhile Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini has travelled to Libya to re-launch cooperation between the two countries.
A new report thinks yes. An Italian rights group recently published a report in which it details several infringements of migrant rights during the lockdown and restrictions designed to fight the coronavirus pandemic. It says that deprivations of personal liberty became more numerous during the lockdown and allowed the authorities to "extend the maximum duration of […] restrictive measure[s]."