For Italy, no end to flood of migrants desperate for refuge
An Italian Financial Guard boat rescued 220 migrants off the coast of Libya on Thursday as the European Union holds an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis. (AP)
CATANIA, Sicily — The tragic scenes unfolding here have become depressingly familiar.
Hundreds of bedraggled migrants shuffling ashore yet again at a port in southern Italy. Desperate asylum-seekers fleeing chaos, poverty and Islamist militants in their countries. Overcrowded, rickety boats that Italian maritime authorities often barely reach in time — if the boats do not capsize and drown their passengers first.
This tidal wave of humanity landing in Italy, seeking shelter, is now a daily occurrence — and the country is struggling under the enormous weight. Italian officials are deeply concerned that the approaching summer, with its calmer weather, could bring tens of thousands more migrants to their beleaguered shores.
On Thursday morning, 220 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa arrived, adding to the almost 1,000 asylum-seekers who came Wednesday. Many of them have the skin infection scabies, presenting a challenge to Italian health officials.
This past weekend, about 850 lost their lives in the sea between lawless Libya and Italy — the worst single death toll among those being smuggled across the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe.
Migrants wait to disembark from the Italian Navy vessel Chimera in the harbor of Salerno. (Francesco Pecoraro/AP)
Catania police said just over two dozen, including four teenagers, survived the shipwreck.
