Immigration in Sicily
As conflicts in Africa and the Middle-East continue to grow, Europe faces a formidable challenge knocking at its doors in the form of unprecedented tides of illegal immigration. The ongoing conflicts in Libya (warring militias), Mali (Taureg rebels and AQMI), Nigeria (Boko Haram), Somalia (Al-Shabaab), Syria (ISIS), Sudan, Eritrea... have rendered hundreds of thousands of people desperately trying to escape the violence and enter Europe, the situation in Italy (Sicily) has become dramatic as this year all previous records of immigrants arriving at its shores have been broken (around 100,000 people have arrived since January 2014 and fresh arrivals continue). According to estimate there are around 500,000 people waiting in Libya to take the boats for Italy. Over 3000 have died at sea trying to reach Europe (4 times higher than 2013). Ironically among the immigrants almost none of them are Libyan, as Libyans are only running the human trafficking networks.
Since the Pope's visit to Lampedusa, Sicilians in general and the Catholic church in particular have opened their doors and pockets to welcome the immigrants but it is an unsustainable almost impossible task to continue in any case the majority of the immigrants have no intention to stay in Italy as all Francophone immigrants want to come to France while the rest towards Germany, Sweden, Switzerland etc.
Immigration in Sicily
As conflicts in Africa and the Middle-East continue to grow, Europe faces a formidable challenge knocking at its doors in the form of unprecedented tides of illegal immigration. The ongoing conflicts in Libya (warring militias), Mali (Taureg rebels and AQMI), Nigeria (Boko Haram), Somalia (Al-Shabaab), Syria (ISIS), Sudan, Eritrea... have rendered hundreds of thousands of people desperately trying to escape the violence and enter Europe, the situation in Italy (Sicily) has become dramatic as this year all previous records of immigrants arriving at its shores have been broken (around 100,000 people have arrived since January 2014 and fresh arrivals continue). According to estimate there are around 500,000 people waiting in Libya to take the boats for Italy. Over 3000 have died at sea trying to reach Europe (4 times higher than 2013). Ironically among the immigrants almost none of them are Libyan, as Libyans are only running the human trafficking networks.
Since the Pope's visit to Lampedusa, Sicilians in general and the Catholic church in particular have opened their doors and pockets to welcome the immigrants but it is an unsustainable almost impossible task to continue in any case the majority of the immigrants have no intention to stay in Italy as all Francophone immigrants want to come to France while the rest towards Germany, Sweden, Switzerland etc.
