The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenwill travel this weekend with the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Melonito the island of Lampedusa, where thousands of immigrants have arrived this week, an EU official announced on Saturday.
Meloni had asked for help Brussels after the influx by boat of some 10,000 people in three days this week to this small Italian island in the Mediterranean, near Tunisia.
The Italian leader had asked Von der Leyen to come to Lampedusa to see the situation and the president of the European Council, Charles Michelwho included the migration issue on the agenda of the October EU summit, while announcing that his Government intended to take extraordinary measures.
Von der Leyen’s visit was confirmed to AFP by a European official, who did not give further details. Between Monday and Wednesday, some 10,000 people, more than the entire population of Lampedusa, arrived aboard 199 boats, according to figures from the United Nations migration agency. Thousands of these immigrants were transferred to Sicily on Friday.
Images of thousands of people sleeping outdoors, jumping the perimeter fence and wandering around the city of Lampedusa have angered members of Italy’s far-right government. The deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini He described these arrivals as an “act of war.”