Nearly 1,800 migrants aboard 63 boats arrived in Lampedusa over the weekend, according to island authorities.
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With our correspondent in Tunis, Lilia Blaise
This is a considerably high number while the number of arrivals since the beginning of the year is around 110,000. The last arrivals this weekend come mainly from Tunisia according to Italian authorities, while the country had concluded an agreement on July 16 with the European Union to strengthen its fight against irregular migration, with immediate aid of 105 million euros.
The majority of migrants arrested this weekend arrived from several Tunisian departure points: Zarzis and Djerba in the south of the country, Sfax and Mahdia in the east. No less than 500 migrants arrived in a single day. Lampedusa is saturated and many migrants have had to be transferred to Sicilian islands.
The figures of recent days bear witness to the limits of Tunisia’s dissuasive policies in terms of controlling irregular migration. The Tunisian National Guard says it has intercepted nearly 34,000 crossings to the Mediterranean since the start of the year, but it has no choice but to release the migrants once they arrive at the port, due to a lack of infrastructure to welcome them. . Many then attempt the crossing again. The authorities have also tried to dissuade candidates for departure from staying in Tunisia if they are undocumented by carrying out checks in February and July on sub-Saharans living in Tunis and Sfax. These controls have led to numerous abuses: evictions from housing but also transport of a thousand migrants in the desert at the Tunisian-Libyan and Algerian borders. The Tunisian Interior Minister estimated that nearly 80,000 irregular migrants are in Tunisia, including 17,000 in the city of Sfax.