Lampedusa houses 900 migrants, despite only having space for 250

After 18 new migrant boat landings in just two days, the reception centre on the island of Lampedusa now houses 900 people, despite only having space for 250.

In 24 hours alone, some 600 migrants arrived on the island as weather conditions that made sections of the Mediterranean impassable have improved in recent days and the island saw 18 vessels, mainly small boats and rubber boats, land.

As landings increases, so do efforts to relieve the island and send migrants to the Italian mainland or to Sicily.

A total of 107 migrants left the island for the Sicilian town of Porto Empedocle on Tuesday morning and another 80 were expected to leave on another vessel in the evening.

Over the course of the summer months, thousands of migrants have arrived on Lampedusa and Sicily and over the last year, Italy’s Interior Ministry revealed that a total of 49,280 migrants had arrived between August 1st 2020 and July 31st 2021.