On Tuesday night 500 migrant people arrived on the island in an operation involving no less than five search and rescue vessels. As the fair weather and favourable sea conditions prevail more migrant people putting to sea in the coming days is expected.
Yesterday, an estimated 3500 people were rescued off the coast of Libya. At 19:00L the first rescue boats arrived in Lampedusa followed by further arrivals at 0100L this morning.
After seemingly ending the day with a brief media interview and meeting with one of Save the Children’s representatives working at the Island’s purposely built refugee camp, Harald, Peter and I headed off for a well-earned pizza and glass of wine. What came next was an unexpected event.
Tuesday on Lampedusa proceeded at an unceasingly rapid pace. After meeting Harald and Peter (our cameraman) at the nearby hotel, in customary Southern European fashion we hired out three scooters for the day to take us to our various meetings.
In recent days the Sea Watch Organisation has been faced with a number of unexpected logistical hurdles. Long story short, rather than basing itself in Malta as originally planned, the Organisation will now base itself on the island of Lampedusa for the next five months.
