The head of the European Commission announced Wednesday, Oct 9, during a visit to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa that Italy will receive an additional 30 million euros in EU funds to help settle refugees, after the sinking of a migrant boat killed at least 275 people, the Associated Press reports.
Jose Manuel Barroso also pledged to work "tirelessly" for an EU-wide asylum policy and to beef up the Frontex border patrol agency to prevent similar tragedies.
He visited Lampedusa with Premier Enrico Letta, who announced that the victims of the sinking would receive a state funeral.
Some islanders shouted "Shame!" as they arrived. Lampedusans have long complained that they have been forgotten by Italy and the EU and left to cope alone with the thousands of migrants who come ashore each year.
According to the AP, Barroso acknowledged that Italy and other southern Mediterranean countries like Greece bear the brunt of the arrivals, but noted that northern European countries like Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and Belgium actually receive the bulk of asylum-seekers for permanent settlement. Those countries took 72 percent of the 330,000 asylum applications in the EU in 2012.
Italy receives a fraction of such applications — 16,000 last year — and Barroso said Italy and Austria should share more of the burden. Nevertheless, he announced 30 million euros in extra EU funds to help Italy improve the standards at its immigrant holding centers to better care for new arrivals.
The Lampedusa center, for example, routinely houses far more than the 850 people for which it has capacity. This week, recent arrivals have slept outside in the rain because there was no space inside for them.
Lampedusa is a tiny speck of an island closer to Africa than to the Italian mainland. It is the destination of choice of smugglers leaving from Libya or Tunisia.
