Italy announces a state of emergency due to an increase in immigration

Italy's right-wing government on Tuesday declared a six-month national state of emergency to help it cope with a surge in migrants arriving on the country's southern shores. Initial funding of 5 million euros (nearly $5.5 million) was also approved as part of the measure. The government said the state of emergency was necessary to reduce congestion at an overwhelmed migrant shelter on a tiny Italian island in the Mediterranean, as well as new structures suitable for sheltering and processing and repatriation of migrants who don't have the requisites to stay. Since the start of this year, some 31,000 migrants, either rescued by Italian military boats or reaching Italy without assistance, have disembarked, according to Interior Ministry figures. The arrivals of migrants, who set out in unseaworthy vessels launched by smugglers from northern African shores, seem destined to swell.

A smugglers' boat, crowded with some 700 passengers, was expected to pull into the port of Catania, a major city in eastern Sicily, when a breakdown forced it to need towing, slowing its advance. The coast guard On one recent day alone, 26 migrant boats reached Lampedusa, an Italian island south of Sicily. The facility on Lampedusa shelters migrants so they can be provisionally identified as a first step toward any asylum application, was reeling under the relentless stream of arrivals. On Tuesday, some 1,600 migrants were staying in the structure, and authorities were hoping for weather to improve so that by evening 400 could be ferried off the island. The biggest number of migrants arriving so far this year are from Ivory Coast, followed by people from Guinea, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia and Bangladesh.

For years, most of the smugglers' boats plying the dangerous central Mediterranean route set sail from western Libya, but recent months have seen many of the voyages start from eastern Libya or from Tunisia. Another route starts from Turkey, aiming to reach Calabria or Puglia in the southern end of the Italian mainland.