(AFP) Italy’s interior ministry on Wednesday said it was finding the migrant situation “much more complex” than in previous years, and was upping returns to Tunisia as it struggled to house new arrivals.
“The coronavirus emergency and the consequent very serious economic crisis that has hit not only the countries of North Africa hard, (is) feeding an exceptional flow of economic migrants” across the Mediterranean, it said.
Many land on the holiday destination of Lampedusa island, as sunbathers paddling in crystal waters look on.
“Autonomous landings on the Italian coasts have more than multiplied in a very short period of time,” the ministry said, referring to small boats which make it across from the coast of North Africa without being intercepted.
