Italy Deporting Illegal Migrants as They Pour In

Saying it is overwhelmed by a sudden influx of illegal immigrants sailing across the Mediterranean, Italy has begun deporting hundreds of recent arrivals to Libya despite widespread condemnation of the practice.

About 2,000 people have been summarily ejected in recent days. Two military airlifts scheduled Tuesday to take 200 illegal immigrants to Libya were canceled for technical reasons, but Italian officials said the expulsions would continue.

The policy, a reversal of Italy’s traditionally more receptive attitude, reflects the mounting difficulties faced by southern European nations whose shores serve as the entry point for illegal immigration from North Africa and the Middle East.

Every year, thousands of impoverished people, usually in overcrowded, rickety boats, come ashore on Italy’s tiny Lampedusa island or Sicily. Scores more have died in the effort. A fishing boat that set sail from Tunisia sank Sunday after it reportedly split in two under the weight of its passengers. Sixty-four people drowned or were missing.

Over the weekend, about 2,600 migrants landed at Lampedusa -- geographically closer to Tunisia than to Europe -- and were being detained at a center with a capacity of 200.

Acting on accords reached this year by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, Italy declared the influx an emergency and began sending the new arrivals back to Libya, where most were believed to have begun their sea voyage. Many were handcuffed as they boarded Italian C-130s.

Human rights and relief agencies said Italy had broken international law because authorities failed to assess whether any of the people, whose nationalities were not always clear, had legitimate asylum claims.

“We run the risk of deporting men and women who are fleeing massacres and persecution,” Stefano Savi, head of the Italian branch of Doctors Without Borders, told reporters. “This is an obvious violation of international law.”

The Community of St. Egidio, an influential humanitarian organization with ties to the Vatican, also protested the expulsions, saying lives were endangered because no effort was being made to determine what would happen to the immigrants after they arrived in Libya.

The group also noted that the number of arrivals in southern Italy this year was well below that of recent years, according to the government’s own statistics.

But Italian officials defended their decision and said they were adhering to international conventions and providing emergency care to the immigrants before repatriating them.

Alfredo Mantovano, deputy interior minister, said the government planned to step up the airlifts. “It discourages the immigrants from leaving for Italy,” he told the La Stampa newspaper. “If they know they will be sent back, perhaps they won’t set out.”

Officials have told humanitarian organizations that anyone from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia is being permitted to remain because of conflicts in those nations, but aid organizations said they doubted that an accurate determination of nationality could be made with such a short turnaround time. In addition, under international rules, asylum is not to be determined by nationality but by individual circumstances.

Officials of the United Nations’ refugee agency have asked Italian and Libyan authorities to provide access to the immigrants and to be allowed to interview them. Libya denied permission, and Italy has not responded to the request, the U.N.’s Laura Boldrini said Tuesday.

Libya is not a signatory to the U.N.’s Geneva Convention regulating the treatment of refugees. The Libyan government intends to hold the returnees in detention centers before flying them to their countries of origin, the BBC reported from Tripoli.

In July, Berlusconi and Kadafi agreed to conduct joint sea, air and land patrols to curb illegal immigration, and, to do the job, Italy reportedly is planning to supply Libya with the helicopters and boats that have been blocked by soon-to-be-lifted European Union sanctions against Tripoli. The anticipated crackdown may be part of what triggered the weekend rush on Lampedusa.

Italy is also supporting a German proposal to build “processing” camps for potential immigrants in five North African countries, including Libya. The controversial plan has yet to receive wider support and was debated again Tuesday at a meeting of the European Union’s parliament.

Critics say the centers would come to resemble concentration camps where the rights of immigrants and refugees could not be guaranteed. Supporters say the camps would provide a way to process asylum claims and legalize immigrants’ status so they would not be forced to make the dangerous, furtive trip across the sea.