More illegal migrants target Italy

Tougher border security at Spain’s two north African enclaves has increased illegal immigration into Italy, the interior minister said.

More migrants heading for Europe have dropped the routes through Ceuta and Melilla in favour of the route from Libya to Italy, said Giuseppe Pisanu.

In the last couple of months, 32% of migrants who attempted to enter southern Italy by sea came from Morocco, which surrounds Ceuta and Melilla, compared with 2.4 percent during the same period last year, Pisanu said.

“A good part of the traditional, clandestine migratory fluxes from Morocco to Spain has spilled over onto Italy through Libya,” Pisanu said.

Pisanu said the change was prompted by increased security since this autumn, when hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans seeking a better life in Europe scaled razor-wire fences to cross from Morocco into Melilla and Ceuta. Eleven were killed in clashes with security forces.

“This makes us fear that with the arrival of warm weather we will find ourselves with a real emergency,” Pisanu said.

“It is not acceptable that it should all be dropped on the shoulders of Libya and Italy.”

Italy has been trying for years to stop the flood of illegal migrants to its shores. Tens of thousands of people from northern and sub-Saharan Africa cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy in rickety boats each year.

The European Union said earlier this year it had received assurances from Libya that it would co-operate in stemming the flow of illegal migrants.

Pisanu urged speedy implementation of EU measures to encourage economic development in destitute African nations from which people flee to Europe, and said “co-operation” on the part of Morocco was absolutely necessary.

Following the deaths in Ceuta and Melilla, Spain strengthened border security with some 250 army troops. However, it recalled the troops in the middle of December.

No attempted crossings have been reported at the enclaves since early October.

Spain has also began working on doubling the height of two parallel, 3-meter-high (10-foot) fences that run around the enclaves.

Morocco, for its part, began rounding up migrants and transporting them to border areas with other countries to expel them.