Italy begins relocating 600 migrants due to Lampedusa collapse

July 10 () –

The Italian Ministry of the Interior has announced this Saturday that it is beginning the relocation work of nearly 600 migrants who are on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The Italian authorities have begun the transfer of hundreds of migrants from the “hot spot” where there are 1,850 people, due to the overcrowding and dangerous conditions in which they find themselves.

To do this, Italy has sent the Navy ship San Marco on Saturday morning and additional units of the Coast Guard will continue with the transfer of migrants on Sunday. The evacuation is scheduled to end completely on Monday, according to the Agrigento Notizie digital newspaper.

The ministry has ensured that those individuals who are vulnerable are being treated as a priority during the evacuation.

The facility is being vacated after a debate sparked by reports about conditions at the camp, which recently housed nearly 2,000 people despite only having 350 available places.

The former mayor of Lampedusa, Giusi Nicolini, posted photos and a video of the camp on her Facebook account on Friday. Nicolini denounced the presence of thousands of people who “sleep on the ground, wherever they eat, among the garbage.”