Italy: Trouble in Paradise (illegal immigrants)
6 minutes, 2003
Ref: 346

The growing refugee crisis on the Italian island of Lampedusa is threatening the Italian government. Lampedusa is a holiday destination of golden-sand beaches where Italians love to come to play under a blistering sun. Or they did. Now the island is under siege from illegal asylum seekers from Africa. Lampedusa's detention centre can't cope. Three times as many people as it's designed for have arrived and are kept behind barbed wire. The past three weeks have seen a surge. Lampedusa is the remote southern outpost of Fortress Europe, the focus of the invasion. As hundreds of happy holidaymakers fly in, hundreds of the unwanted arrivals are flown out, to bigger holding centres on Sicily. And almost as soon as one batch is processed and despatched, another desperate boat-load arrives. And they just keep coming. Locals are upset. Although this is the southernmost part of Italy, the far-right Northern League, a member of the ruling coalition, is suddenly flavour of the month. A Northern League spokeswoman said "We have to choose who is going to survive. We have reached a point on this island where it's either them or us." Hoteliers here are getting edgy. Cancellations are rising. The Lampedusa economy is dependent on tourists, and tourists don't seem to like the idea that the cleanest, most alluring waters in the Mediterranean are polluted with the rotting corpses of those that don't make it. For those that do make it, most will be deported, some will manage to vanish and perhaps turn up in Germany, France or Britain in a couple of months.