New Wave of Migrants Overwhelms Italian Island

Migrants disembark a boat on the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa, Italy July 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mauro Buccarello
Migrants disembark a boat on the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa, Italy July 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mauro Buccarello
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New Wave of Migrants Overwhelms Italian Island

Migrants disembark a boat on the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa, Italy July 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mauro Buccarello
Migrants disembark a boat on the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa, Italy July 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mauro Buccarello

About 100 migrants who crossed the Mediterranean in small boats landed on the southern island of Lampedusa during the night, the latest in a wave of arrivals straining an already overcrowded holding center.

Officials said the migrants, arriving from Libya, were either rescued at sea or managed to avoid detection and reach the island.

The arrivals of small boats, some carrying as few as eight people, brought to nearly 1,000 the number of migrants who have reached the island from Libya in the last three days, Reuters reported.

About 15 boats carrying some 300 migrants arrived during the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

They were put in a holding center called the "hotspot".

Designed to hold about 100 people, in recent days it has been home to nearly 10 times as many.

Provincial officials this week ordered the emergency transfer of about 300 migrants to another center in Sicily.

The recent overcrowding in Lampedusa has also led to immigration resurfacing as a political issue.

Former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant League party, visited Lampedusa and the "hotspot" on Wednesday and accused the government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of being soft on illegal migration.

"I can't wait to return to a government with serious people so I can close the ports again to block delinquents and reopen them to law-abiding citizens," he told supporters on the island.

When he was interior minister in the previous government, which collapsed about a year ago, Salvini closed Italian ports to rescue ships run by charities.

In response, Enrico Borghi, of the governing Democratic Party, accused Salvini of being a "demagogue" and said the current government was not going to "watch men and women drown".



Death Toll in Pakistan Building Collapse Rises to 27

Rescue workers recover a victim's body during a search operation amidst the debris of a collapsed building in Karachi on July 5, 2025. (Photo by Rizwan TABASSUM / AFP)
Rescue workers recover a victim's body during a search operation amidst the debris of a collapsed building in Karachi on July 5, 2025. (Photo by Rizwan TABASSUM / AFP)
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Death Toll in Pakistan Building Collapse Rises to 27

Rescue workers recover a victim's body during a search operation amidst the debris of a collapsed building in Karachi on July 5, 2025. (Photo by Rizwan TABASSUM / AFP)
Rescue workers recover a victim's body during a search operation amidst the debris of a collapsed building in Karachi on July 5, 2025. (Photo by Rizwan TABASSUM / AFP)

Rescue teams were in the final stages of clearing the wreckage of a five-story building that collapsed in Pakistan's mega city of Karachi killing 27 people, officials said Sunday.

Residents reported hearing cracking sounds shortly before the apartment block crumbled around 10:00 am on Friday in Karachi's impoverished Lyari neighborhood, which was once plagued by gang violence and considered one of the most dangerous areas in Pakistan.

"Most of the debris has been removed," Hassaan Khan, a spokesman for government rescue service 1122 told AFP, adding that the death toll stood at 27 on Sunday morning.

He expected the operation to finish by the afternoon.

Authorities said the building had been declared unsafe and eviction notices were sent to occupants between 2022 and 2024, but landlords and some residents told AFP they had not received them.

"My daughter is under the rubble," 54-year-old Dev Raj told AFP at the scene on Saturday.

"She was my beloved daughter. She was so sensitive but is under the burden of debris. She got married just six months ago."

Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan, mainly because of poor safety standards and shoddy construction materials in the South Asian country of more than 240 million people.

But Karachi, home to more than 20 million, is especially notorious for poor construction, illegal extensions, ageing infrastructure, overcrowding, and lax enforcement of building regulations.