A migrant reception centre in Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa was overwhelmed Thursday as authorities worked to transfer to the mainland thousands of people who arrived on small, unseaworthy boats in a 24-hour span this week.
The Red Cross said there were still 4,200 migrants at the centre out of the 6,800 who reached the tiny tourist and fishing island in a flotilla of some 120 boats that set out from Tunisia. Commercial ferries and Italian military vessels were taking newcomers from Lampedusa to mainland Italy.
