Facing the unknown, migrants leave Lampedusa with hopes for better life

The sun is sweltering as Abdul, 20, waits in line at the commercial port of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

He arrived a couple of days before from Sudan, braving a treacherous journey through the Mediterranean as thousands of migrants do every day, in a desperate attempt to seek a better life in Europe.

"The trip was dangerous, but what could I do?" he told Anadolu, while waiting to get on a ship headed to Sicily with dozens of other migrants who shared similar stories.

"We saw people dying at sea," he said, still visibly shaken from the jarring experience.

"But there's a war in my country, with militias fighting in the capital, Khartoum."

He said the boat that brought him to Lampedusa-a tiny Italian island that has become the frontline for migration fluxes from North Africa-was "very small" and crammed with about 40 people.

Abdul does not know where he is headed now, but he is still hoping for a better life, and possibly a job, in Italy or another European country, to help his family back home.

In recent weeks, the migrant reception center on Lampedusa has been overwhelmed beyond its capacity. The Italian Red Cross estimated that the island hosted up to 7,000 new arrivals in mid-September, many of them coming by boat from Tunisia.

Local residents, facing a migration emergency since 2011, helped hand out food, water and clothing as people struggled to find space inside the center-known as the "hotspot"-which was built for just 400 people.

Hundreds of migrants have progressively been transferred by ferry to one of the four processing centers in Sicily and then to mainland Italy, leaving just a few remaining.

"I'd like to live in an Italian city, like Rome," Abdul said with a smile.

"I'm definitely not going back to Africa."

'I WANTED TO BE FREE'

Italy's right-wing government led by Premier Giorgia Meloni had pledged to stop illegal immigration from North African countries, even using the extreme option of "naval blockades."

But the situation in Lampedusa is a clear demonstration that the government's promises were unmet.

In the most recent emergency, approximately 11,000 people reached the island-which has a population of just 6,000-over just four days, with a peak of 5,000 on Sept. 12 alone.

At one point, there were over 50 small boats full of people all lined up in the port, waiting to be rescued.

In a recent assessment of her first year in power, Meloni admitted she hoped to do "better" in controlling irregular migration, which has surged to record levels since her party won elections last September.

Latest Interior Ministry data shows some 133,000 migrants have reached Italy by boat so far this year, almost double of the nearly 70,000 that arrived in the same period of 2022.

Blaisin Duduri, 22, arrived in Lampedusa by boat after leaving Nigeria with her husband and their 2-year-old girl.

She holds her kid's hand while waiting with other migrants at the island's port to get on a ship that will take her to a still unknown destination on the Italian mainland.

Duduri said she had to leave her country because her stepmother wanted her to change her religion.

"I wanted to be free," she told Anadolu.