LAMPEDUSA
\nMigrants arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa are being relocated to towns and cities across the mainland, often on the back of arduous journies across the Mediterranean Sea
\nTransferring migrants from the island of Lampedusa to other locations across the country is the only solution Italian authorities have provided to relieve pressure on the local reception centre, which often becomes overcrowded.
\nEuronews spoke with some of the new arrivals heading for the Sicilian town of Porto Empedocle by ferry after spending 24 hours on the island.
\nMost of them are sub-Saharan migrants who fled Tunisia after a wave of racist attacks against black Africans.
\nThey include two women from the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, who met each other in Lampedusa.
\nOne of the women explained: \u201cTunisian people didn\u2019t want to see me there. They didn\u2019t like us, we didn\u2019t feel welcome. \u201cThat\u2019s why we left. I wasn\u2019t deported to the desert. My friends were. We know that people died over there.\u201d
\nThe other woman also spoke about her experiences of racism en route.
\n\u201cI left Burkina because of the war. I went to Tunisia to be able to travel to Italy. I didn\u2019t last there. It was very difficult because they don\u2019t like black people.\u201d
\nMigrants usually have to wait to get on board until all passengers including tourists leave the boat, but local residents have mixed feelings about migrants living on the island.
\nHowever, they told Euronews that authorities are better managing landings now compared to before.
\nOn the one hand, it appears people have grown used to seeing migrants live amongst the locals. But on the other, there are concerns about the island\u2019s reputation and about the opinions of outside visitors.
\nOne resident explained: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of solidarity here among locals. They deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.
\nWhen the summer season arrives many people cancel their reservations following a bad advertising campaign, and that can become a problem for many of them.\u201d
\nHowever, the first migrant landings by sea date back to the early 1990s. Welcoming new people is part of the island\u2019s DNA.
\nWith no reception centre in the past, local families used to host the migrants in their homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAMPEDUSA Migrants arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa are being relocated to towns and cities across the mainland, often on the back of arduous journies across the Mediterranean Sea Transferring migrants from the island of Lampedusa to other locations across the country is the only solution Italian authorities have provided to relieve pressure on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-352343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n