Newborn Baby Found Dead on Migrant Boat as Italy Grapples with Influx of Arrivals
September 17, 2023
"On Saturday, the body of a newborn baby was recovered from a migrant boat, with the mother suspected to have given birth during the journey. Investigations are ongoing."
On Saturday the body of a newborn baby was recovered from a migrant boat.
The mother is thought to have given birth during the journey from North Africa, the Ansa news agency reports, and the death is being investigated.
The child’s body was placed in a white coffin and taken to a cemetery in Lampedusa’s Imbriacola district, according to Italian media.
Earlier this week, a five-month-old baby boy drowned during a rescue operation off the island, after a boat carrying migrants across the sea from north Africa capsized.
Meloni is pushing for a European Union naval blockade to prevent boats from crossing the Mediterranean to reach Italian shores.
The Italian Red Cross said on Saturday that it was dealing with about 2 500 people at a reception centre designed for 400 arrivals.
Volunteers and staff have been providing thousands of meals all week and helping transfer new arrivals to Sicily and elsewhere.
Nearly 126 000 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year, which is about double the number for the same period in 2022.
Meloni said on Saturday that she was calling on von der Leyen “to personally realise the gravity of the situation we face” and to “immediately accelerate” the implementation of an agreement with Tunisia.
The North African country has become the main departure point for African migrants attempting to reach Europe.
The EU deal, which was signed in July, is backed up by €110m ($118m; £90m) of EU cash to stop smuggling, strengthen borders and return migrants.
The surge in arrivals led to protests on Saturday by some Lampedusa residents against plans to build a new tent camp to host the migrants.
“I have two children at home. In the past years, I did not care about this issue. But now I have an instinct of protection for my children because I don’t know what will happen to Lampedusa in the future,” one of the protesters told the Reuters news agency.
“Lampedusa says stop! We don’t want tent camps. This message is for Europe and for the Italian government. Lampedusa residents are tired,” another protester said.
Jasmine Lozzelli, an activist working on Lampedusa, told the BBC the migrants should be sent to mainland Italy.
“It’s not a problem of numbers, it’s a problem of how you manage the reception system. If you start to do rescues in a proper way with big ships, you take them not to an island of 5 000 inhabitants, you take them to the mainland,” she said.
