Camp of the Saints: The Flood Resumes

I predicted last night that the lull in the Mediterranean refugee crisis wouldn’t last long, and I was right — less than twenty-four hours later Lampedusa was inundated again. As a result the Cultural Enrichment Thermometer in the above graphic has had to be updated, but it required a close look at the various news stories to decide by how much.

First of all, consider this brief report from ANSAmed:

Over 500 Sub-Saharan Migrants Land on Lampedusa

(ANSAmed) — Rome, June 29 — Two large boats carrying immigrants landed on the shores of Lampedusa in the early morning hours today. On the boats, which were assisted by port authority patrol boats, there were an overall 553 migrants including about 50 women and 17 children. The immigrants are from Sub-Saharan Africa and may have weighed anchor from Libya.

The longer story below is plainly a somewhat more detailed account of the same two landings:

Two Boatloads of Immigrants Land in Lampedusa

Women and children among more than 500 arrivals

(ANSA) — Lampedusa, June 29 — Two large boats carrying more than 500 immigrants landed on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa early Wednesday.

Port authority officials met the first boat with around 225 immigrants as it arrived at the entrance to the port, while coast guard officials then intercepted the second boat carrying around 328 people two miles off the coast.

The immigrants were mostly from sub-Saharan Africa and the boats included more than 50 women and 17 children.

Both boats are believed to have departed from Libya and the new arrivals were immediately transferred to the island’s immigrant welcome centre.

But this report from AGI seems to describe a separate incident involving a single boat carrying more than 800 enrichers.

840 Refugees Arrive in Lampedusa, 117 Women 28 Children

(AGI) Lampedusa — A record 840 Libyan refugees arrived in Lampedusa tonight, including 117 women and 28 children. The refugees arrived in Lampedusa shortly after 7.30pm aboard an about 20-metre-long boat which had been rescued earlier today some 16 miles off the island. The migrants, all of them from sub-Saharan Africa, left Libya some days ago. It is the largest single landing of immigrants on the island ever. Some weeks ago, 932 immigrants arrived in Pozzallo, in the province of Ragusa.

The total from all three boats is around 1,400, which brings the year-to-date number of arrivals in Italy to just over 46,500.

Almost all of the newcomers are from sub-Saharan Africa — that is, they are among the poorest, least skilled, and least employable migrants in the world.


For previous posts about the Mediterranean refugee crisis, see The Camp of the Saints Archive.

Hat tips: C. Cantoni, Fjordman, and Insubria.