Despite the transfer of a small group of 225 Tunisian migrants on
14 February from the Italian island of Lampedusa to migrant
reception centres in Puglia and Sicily, the situation in the centre
on Lampedusa where 2,000 migrants are being housed is difficult.

With facilities normally for a maximum of 800 people, the
migrants in the centre are sleeping wherever they can find space,
including in the IOM office with the overcrowding complicating the
distribution of food and other assistance.

To help avoid tension, IOM has been providing general legal
information to the migrants as well as working with some of the
community elders among the group to explain the rules and
procedures of the centre and advice on behaviour around the small
island which has a population of only 5,000 people.

IOM and partners including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) and Save the Children have also been supporting the
transfer of migrants from Lampedusa to Puglia and Sicily.

Of those that were transferred on Monday, 100 of the migrants
were taken to Puglia where three reception centres are based in
Bari, Brindisi and Foggia. The remaining 125 were taken to Porto
Empedocle in Sicily, among them 20 minors aged between 13-16 years
who were transferred to special facilities for unaccompanied
minors.

Of the more than 5,200 Tunisian migrants who have arrived in
recent days in Italy, the majority are young men aged between 18-30
from Djerba and Zarzis, with a few saying they come from Tunis and
Sfax.

IOM staff on Lampedusa and in six reception centres in Puglia
and Sicily who are providing the migrants with information on their
situation, say the Tunisian migrant flow is mixed although the
majority of the migrants have told them they want to work. Citing
poverty and difficult economic situations, they largely want to go
to other countries in Europe including France, Germany and the
Netherlands. However, some also say they left Tunisia because they
were afraid, citing insecurity and danger.

For further information, please contact:

Flavio di Giacomo

IOM Rome

Tel: + 39 347 08 98 996

E-mail: "mailto:fdigiacomo@iom.int">fdigiacomo@iom.int

or

Jemini Pandya

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 22 717 9486

       +41 79 217 3374

E-mail: "mailto:jpandya@iom.int">jpandya@iom.int