More than 2,000 Tunisian migrants are currently in a heavily
over-crowded reception centre on the Italian island of Lampedusa,
according to IOM officials there, among them a small group of
minors.

The centre can normally accommodate 800 people.

IOM staff on Lampedusa report there were no more boat arrivals
during the night and that the transfer of migrants to other
reception centres around Italy have stopped for the moment.

With conditions in the centre difficult due to overcrowding, the
migrants could become frustrated. As a result, IOM staff on the
island are mediating between the police and the migrants by
explaining what the next steps are likely to be for the migrants.
Special attention will be given to minors in the transfer out from
Lampedusa to other reception centres in Italy.

An IOM team on Lampedusa since last Friday (11 February) has
been providing assistance in extremely difficult circumstances to
thousands of migrants who had already arrived in several boats from
Tunisia and who were camping out on the pier.

Since the re-opening of the reception centre in Lampedusa on
Sunday (13 February), those migrants who had not been transferred
from the island have been moved there. The small number of women
migrants among the arrivals is being hosted in hotels on the
island.

IOM has welcomed the reopening of the centre on Lampedusa which
had been closed down since mid 2009 as it would ensure that minimum
standards of reception for migrants are respected.

In a statement on Sunday, the Organization also said the
transfers of migrants from Lampedusa should be increased given the
events of the past few days as the island was too small to cope
with the number of arrivals.

IOM’s teams permanently deployed in Bari, Brindisi and
Foggia in Puglia and in the main migrant reception centres in
Sicily, are also assisting many of those who have already been
transferred off Lampedusa. IOM teams composed of a field officer
and an interpreter-cultural mediator meet the migrants and provide
legal counselling and answer daily needs or requests. The most
vulnerable of the migrants receive specific individual counselling
and assistance.

Reports are that migrants are paying an average of USD 1, 800 to
make the journey from Zarzis on the Tunisian coast to
Lampedusa.

Since 2006, IOM and partners including UNHCR, the Italian Red
Cross and Save the Children have been working together on a
programme to provide a range of assistance measures to irregular
migrants being housed in reception centres on Lampedusa and
Sicily.

IOM has also been providing legal counselling to migrants
detained in reception centres in Puglia and in Castel Volturno in
Campania since 2009.

For more information, please contact:

Jemini Pandya

Tel: + 41.22.717.94.86

Mobile: 00 41 79.217.33.74

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

Flavio DiGiacomo

Tel: +39.06.44.186.207

       +39.347.089.89.96

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