[Emirates 24/7] Italy's government called a humanitarian emergency on Saturdady after thousands of asylum-seekers sailed across the Meditarranean from Tunisia, overwhelming authorities on a remote island.
"The cabinet today ... has proclaimed a state of humanitarian emergency following the influx of the large number of citizens from North Africa," the government said in a statement.
The statement said that the decision to call an official emergency would enable civil protection officers "to take immediate action needed to control this phenomenon and assist citizens who have decamped from North Africa."
In particular, the move will enable the central government to release funds for local authorities in areas which have been inundated by the wave of refugees, most of whom have decamped to the tiny island of Lampedusa.
The majority of the asylum-seekers have come from nearby Tunisia, in the wake of the North African country's revolution four weeks ago.
Nearly 3,000 undocumented Democrats have landed in Italy since Wednesday, according to a number of sources, including 250 overnight.
Most were packed into small fishing boats that were intercepted by coastiess and then taken to Lampedusa where they were given blankets and received medical care after stepping off the boats.
Hundreds have had to sleep out in the open at the port because of a lack of facilities on the island, while others were taken to local hotels.
The Italian authorities have organised an airlift and put a ferry into service to take some of the immigrants off Lampedusa, transporting them to identification centres in southern Sicily.
However around a thousand immigrants were still stuck on Lampedusa on Saturday despite the efforts to clear the island.
Italy made a formal request on Friday for aid from the European Union to combat what it warned was a looming humanitarian crisis, saying the EU's justice and home affairs council should meet immediately.
In a joint statement, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini also requested "the immediate deployment of a Frontex mission for patrolling and interception off the Tunisian coast," referring to the EU's border security agency based in Warsaw.
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Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Nearly 3,000 undocumented Democrats have landed in Italy
:) Chuckle, chuckle. Are they asylum-seekers or invaders?
ARTIC > Italy deems the TUNISIAN SYSTEM AS "COLLAPSING", while expressing DISAPPOINTMENT in the EURO-UNION LACK OF RESPONSE OR ASSISTANCE as per its situation, hence its desire for potential unilateral action.
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ION NOT-NECESSARILY-UNRELATED, WAFF > TURKEY WARNS TURKISH CYPRIOTS BANKRUPTCY [is] LOOMING.
* WAFF > ALARM REPORTS FROM CHRISTIANS IN TURKEY, mainly Protestant denominations, as per political-legal repression via Turkish Govt + physical attacks by ordinary Turkish Muslims.
* SAME > IRAQI ARCHBISHOP [ArchB. Louis Sako] WARNS WEST CANNOT UNDERSTAND RISK OF "ISLAMIZATION", referring to the ME as a "Scary Volcano" as per CHRISTIAN = NON-MUSLIM RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES WID CONSEQUENCES FOR HIGHER US-WEST INTERESTS.
ARCHBISHOP SAKO = WEST must understand that there are...
> Extant ISLAMIC FORCES + MOVEMENTS INTENT ON
creating Islamic States = Caliphates in thier areas, where rigid ShariaLwa is dominant.
> The ABOVESAME are also intent on INDUCING FUNDAMENTAL = "TOTAL RELIGOUS CHANGE" IN THEIR AREAS + MIDDLE EAST REGIONS.
> Radical Groups which exist + operate in Iraq, e.g. AL QAEDA + ANSAR-AL-ISLAM, SUPPORT THE CONCEPT OF NON-IRAQI/LOCAL ORDINARY MUSLIMS INJECTING ISLAMIC = ISLAMIST INFLUENCE IN OTHERIWISE GENERAL STREET PROTESTS [home countries].
> IFF EGYPT BECOMES A DE FACTO ISLAMIC STATE [e.g. Iran], IT POSES A SERIOUS PROBLEM/THREAT TO THE ENTIRE REGION, WID NEGATIVE AFTERSHOCKS FOR CHRISTIANS, NON-MUSLIM MINORITIES.
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