The fishing boats from Tripoli began arriving in the clear light of morning and continued well into the day on Friday, unloading more than 1,000 immigrants to this tiny Sicilian island.

Most who made the rough crossing were men in their 20s and 30s, but there were also dozens of women, some pregnant, and several babies, whose sharp cries pierced the fresh sea air.
Others never reached here. More than 600 died last week when their unstable boat broke apart off the Libyan coast, and three unidentified African men died off the coast of Lampedusa on Sunday during a night landing in rough waters.

Earlier this year, about 24,000 Tunisians traveled through Lampedusa, most seeking work in Europe. But now the situation has changed. More than 9,000 people have arrived from Libya since its unrest began, most of them sub-Saharan Africans and South Asians who had been working there, including more than 2,000 in the past week. Almost all are deemed refugees, and most are seeking asylum.

[adrotate group=”24″ banner=”27″]