Tunisian migrant: EU treatment is 'shameful'

"We came here to look for freedom, to look for justice, rights. Because this is what we hear about Europe. But where is it? We didn't find anything," he told EUobserver, noting that Italy is complaining about a few thousand immigrants at a time when the much poorer Tunisia has welcomed over 200,000 refugees from Libya.

"In Tunisia it's not like this. In Tunisia, people from all the cities - from Tunis, Djerba, Sfax - brought pillows, all sorts of things to help the refugees. Food, too. We haven't eaten anything, except for some milk," said the francophone former hotel cashier, who hopes to get to France and to get a job as "anything."

The 16-to-24-hour-long trip by boat from post-revolutionary Tunisia is no easy ride, especially when the waves are high. Last week, 42 people died when their boat was overturned. Juts five were saved after being rushed to the local emergency room on Lampedusa.

Carrying mostly young men in their 20s and 30s, some boats also have women and children on board. On Tuesday, six women arrived, one of whom was pregnant and was accompanied by her husband.

At the airport in Lampedusa on Tuesday (22 March), a group of 70 Tunisians were waiting to be flown to Sicily. Mohammed Tebey, 32 years old, told this website he spent 10 days on the island before boarding a police plane. "I stayed four days at the [reception centre], after six days under clear sky."

Aid workers and local charities offering food, clothes and blankets are overstretched as the frequency of incoming boats outpaces the flights going out from the island. The reception centre, built for a maximum of 850 persons, was at one point hosting over 2,000 in rapidly-deteriorating sanitary conditions.

Many were brought to the centre just to be registered and then left to go back and camp on the hills around the port.

The Italian Finance Guard (which operates ships rescuing the migrants at high sea) on Wednesday said there were no new arrivals overnight - a first in the past five days. "But we expect more boats to come. And, at some point, boats from Libya," said Finance Guard spokesman Eduardo Faiella.

After several days of protests by Lamepdusa locals, the Italian government on Monday held an emergency meeting and convinced other regions to take in the 5,000 or so people who have arrived in the space of less than a week. The figure is as large as the total native population.

An Italian warship was on Wednesday deployed to Lampedusa to help with the transfer of around 700 of the Tunisians. The warship San Marco, one of Italy's three landing platform dock (LPD) boats, will carry the migrants to Sicily, speeding up the relocation effort which was until now carried out by plane with just 60 to 70 people per flight.

"The pace was way too slow," said Tommaso dilla Longa, a spokesman for the local Red Cross mission. "We asked the Italian government on Sunday to reinforce the airlink, as the situation here is unsustainable." He noted that: "We have [had] many arrivals in the last five days. We will double our team to 24 doctors and nurses in this field hospital."

For its part, Frontex, the EU's Warsaw-based border control agency, is doing its bit to help with money.

The agency has offered to reimburse Italy the cost of flights carrying migrants from Lampedusa to other migrant camps in Italy where Frontex has personnel. The financial offer covers three centres in Sicily and two on the Italian mainland.