Dezenas de milhares de africanos buscam Lampedusa

LONDON (AlertNet) - A leading aid agency has lambasted Italy for its “wholly inadequate” response to thousands of Africans fleeing the war in Libya, including many who have suffered torture and other violence.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says Italy must “drastically improve … the appalling reception and living conditions” for migrants, who are reaching its shores in overcrowded boats, often in shock and suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and other ailments.
Nearly 30,000 people have made the often perilous sea journey to Italy’s tiny southern island of Lampedusa since the start of the uprisings that have swept the Arab world.
The vast majority have been Tunisians, but arrivals from Libya are increasing. Most of these people are sub-Saharan Africans from countries including Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Nigeria. Many had fled to Libya to escape violence in their homelands.
Last weekend alone, 12 boats carrying 2,665 people landed on Italian shores, while 715 people were rescued from an off-shore boat, MSF said.
MSF Head of Mission in Italy, Rolando Magnano, accused the authorities of responding “in an ad-hoc and wholly inadequate manner” to the migrants arriving from northern Africa.
“This weekend the authorities even ran out of dry clothes and water for people who arrived in shock and with hypothermia,” he added.
“Hundreds of people were then forced to sleep outside, while hundreds of others were put in overcrowded centres, lying on dirty mattresses without sufficient towels, blankets or soap. This is clearly unacceptable.”