More than 30,000 asylum seekers reached Lampedusa this year, compared with Malta’s 1,800. Ariadne Massa spent a few hours on the Italian island.
Silence hangs over the bay at Lampedusa where just three weeks ago children and their parents drowned attempting to reach this refuge.
The sandy shore is dotted with plastic water bottles handed to the asylum seekers who survived and surgical gloves lie scattered close by – remnants of the rescue operation.
Just across the road from the bay, wooden carcasses of rickety boats numerous immigrants travelled in loom large, a symbolic reminder of the frequent arrivals received on this tiny island, roughly a third the size of Gozo.
The tragedy of October 3 when 366 Eritreans lost their lives in the murky waters just a few hundred metres away from shore and the subsequent loss of more than 50 Syrians eight days later left locals with a heavy heart.
“It was an ugly day, which will remain imprinted in my mind forever. Life makes no sense when you see so many people dying like that,” Mimmo Girolamo, a taxi driver, said.
We coexist with asylum seekers and mostly, the situation is controlled
“Europe has been watching and doing nothing. I hope this terrible tragedy will not be forgotten and something is done now. Tourists are afraid to come to Lampedusa because of what they keeping hearing.”
The island has been heaving under constant arrivals – just last Thursday another boat with 127 immigrants arrived, and on Friday hundreds more were rescued and taken to the overcrowded gated ‘reception centre’.
The centre – Malta’s equivalent of a detention centre that is well guarded by the army – can take a maximum of 300 but until a few days ago 900 were crammed in this space, some sleeping in makeshift camps.
The asylum screening process contrasts sharply with Malta – the Lampedusa facility is not supposed to detain immigrants for more than 72 hours before transferring them to the mainland, according to Lampedusa’s deputy mayor Damiano Sferlazzo.
So while the island has been weighed down by thousands, very few Africans can be seen roaming the main street of Lampedusa and life seems to be running smoothly in the sleepy village. Unofficially, small numbers are allowed out at certain hours until their paperwork is processed.
The problems arise when hundreds of asylum seekers reach the island back to back stretching resources and throwing the system into a state of emergency as happened this month; some of the Eritreans who arrived on October 3 remain there three weeks on.
Lampedusa, Mr Sferlazzo said, had been abandoned to face this emergency of its own for too long.
When Mr Sferlazzo met a group of youth political leaders, led by Nationalist MEP candidate Kevin Plumpton, on Thursday he said the numbers at the centre were closer to 300.
However, the numbers keep fluctuating and the two most recent boat arrivals must have sent the numbers soaring again.
“Those arriving here are escaping a place where their lives are being trampled upon... Every minute of every day people are dying attempting to make the dangerous crossing,” Mr Sferlazzo said, adding that the October 3 tragedy was not something new.
“At least this sorrowful journey has finally put the issue firmly on Europe’s agenda, if we can help stop this tragedy repeating itself it would be a small victory. Mankind has failed if we can’t help these people.
Life makes no sense when you see so many people dying like that
“The economic Europe has to rediscover its soul and become a Europe of the people otherwise we cannot speak of a Union.”
Until this happens Lampedusians have been doing their utmost to give all those who arrive, day after day, a warm welcome, clothes and toys for their children, even if this is having a negative effect on their own livelihood – tourism.
“The media exaggerate the problem and make it sound as if Lampedusa is just about immigration,” Roberta Marchetti said.
Ms Marchetti, who works with a diving school opposite the bay, acknowledged the problem did exist, but the way it was portrayed kept people away.
“Everyday life here is very different from what people see on the TV from their home. We coexist with asylum seekers and mostly, the situation is controlled... With the exception when so many arrive at the same time,” she said.
Her colleagues chipped into the debate, curious to learn what the situation in Malta was like and puzzled at the fact that Malta, unlike Lampedusa, had no mainland to transfer asylum seekers to.
“Here you don’t see migrants on the streets much,” one of the men said, adding that like Malta the migrants did not want to be in Lampedusa.
Ms Marchetti added: “Lampedusa is suffering tremendously from a tourism point of view. The October 3 tragedy was one of many that’s been unfolding here for more than 15 years.
“Who knows how many more died who we don’t even know about... Europe needs to address this problem at the point of departure; before they actually get here.”
Despite a business that’s ailing as a consequence of the negative publicity, Ms Marchetti insists the migrants are always welcomed by Lampedusians.
Rusom, a 31-year-old Eritrean, is one of them. Looking weary he walked into a takeaway, with his 21-year-old friend and waved at the owner, Giovanni Carone. The two survived the October 3 shipwreck and were attempting to swim ashore when they were rescued.
There is camaraderie between Rusom and Mr Carone but communication is difficult as both speak few words in English, so trying to explain that he wanted his uncle to wire him some money was near impossible.
Mr Carone sighs at the failed attempt and shrugs. Wiping his brow he stops to talk about the subject on everybody’s lips, but he, unlike many others, does not believe immigration is a problem.
“For years humans have been migrating in search of a better life. Lampedusa has always been a refuge in the middle of the sea – in the past and now,”he said.