Lampedusa mayor asks EU heads for migrant law reforms
(ANSA) – Brussels, October 24 – The mayor of Lampedusa, the small Italian island that is first point of contact for tens of thousands of migrants sailing from Africa, urged European leaders meeting Thursday in Brussels to reform immigration law. At least 400 migrants drowned in two separate boat disasters earlier this month trying to reach Italy, many of the bodies brought ashore on Lampedusa where resources are stretched beyond capacity.
Extra coffins were rushed to the small southern island, which is closer to Libya than Sicily, to accommodate the vast numbers of dead. “Now that you have seen all those coffins, I really hope that something will change,” Mayor Giusi Nicolini said as the European Union leaders gathered for a two-day conference on subjects ranging from the migrant crisis to economic troubles.
“Do not disappoint us,” added Nicolini, who repeated her call for changes to European laws regarding asylum seekers.
Nicolini has urged changes to the Dublin regulation affecting those who flee troubles in their homelands, often from North Africa and the Middle East.
“A policy that does not allow them to seek asylum before getting on those boats is an unjust policy”. The European Union’s Dublin regulation states that only one member state is responsible for the examination of asylum applications.
The aim of the regulation is to stop asylum seekers being sent from one country to another and help prevent abuse of the system.
But some have said it is preventing those countries most exposed to migrant arrivals benefiting from the solidarity of their fellow EU member States.