Migrants overwhelm Italian island; islanders launch protest

arrival of hundreds of migrants crammed into a rickety fishing boat has worsened severe overcrowding at shelters on a tiny Italian island, triggering an angry demonstration by islanders and a vow Sunday by mayor to call a protest strike.While tensions grew on Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, ar migrant drama was reported. RAI state TV said a fire broke out on a small migrant boat off coast of Calabria, on mainland, just as passengers were being transferred to an Italian military boat.

RAI said fuel on migrant boat apparently caused a fire, n an explosion, and migrants ended up in sea near Crotone. Crews from Italian coast guard and custom boats rescued most of m, but six persons were missing, state TV report said.

Italian news ncy LaPresse said about 20 migrants h been aboard boat. Two customs police were reported injured.Bars at a beach near Crotone watched dark smoke pour out of vessel a few kilometers (miles) offshore.On Lampedusa, a migrant center meant to house fewer than 200 was w crammed with 1,200 people after latest arrivals, including several small boats with migrants that set out apparently from Tunisia and reached island without needing rescue.

Lampedusa Mayor Toto' Martello expressed astonishment that a fishing boat carrying 450 migrants mand to arrive within a few kilometers of island without being ticed by military vessels or aircraft, including from European Frontex mission, which is supposed to be fighting human trafficking in central Mediterranean.

Italian coast guard escorted fishing vessel to port Saturday night, where Lampedusa residents std a protest, with some lying down, yelling “Eugh!”

“Last night was a sit-in but I will call a strike” this week, with storekeepers shuttering shops for a day on island, which lives off tourism and fishing, Martello said. strike is aimed “against a government which doesn't have a strategy” to deal with migrants, he said.

A week earlier, citing concern over COVID-19 infections, Sicily's goverr ordered migrant processing centers on large Mediterranean island to shut down. But center-left Italian government, which is in charge of migrant policy nationwide, went to court and goverr's order was stayed, pending a hearing next month.With so many migrants on Lampedusa, a Catholic parish stepped in to find housing for latest several hundred arrivals.

Also reaching Lampedusa on Saturday were 49 migrants whom Italian coast guard took from a dangerously overcrowded rescue boat, Louise Michel, which took on so many people it couldn't navigate. Louise Michel's operation is funded by street artist Banksy, who also painted vessel a bright pink, including a lifesaving buoy in shape of a heart. Louise Michel was still at sea, as were or private rescue boats, appealing for permission from eir Italy or Malta to disembark hundreds of migrants y collectively have aboard, many who have been stuck for days or weeks.

(Im Credit: AP)