Lampedusa .. nature Love, or the gateway to Europe!!?

Many people may not have heard about the Italian island «Lampedusa» eccept only through the reports received from African immigrants, illegal, or so-called «boat people» who seek a better life in Europe, of that miserable life in many African countries !!.

The island is one of the favorite destinations for the illegal migrants -the nearest italian island to Africa- and became famous because of what was recounted by the media about the boats sank off the coast, or arrived in large numbers to it.

However, what no one knows, is that the island, which is located in the far south of Italy, attracts nature lovers, tourists, its clear «turquoise» water and the white and sharp beaches, rocky slopes, in addition to plants yellow chrysanthemums and baking, which is growing amid the rocks and shrubs, side by side with the artichokes and fennel with a wonderful smell.

Lampedusa is the largest island of the isolated «Belagia» islands, which also includes the islands of «Inosa» and « Ambioni».

Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea, a distance of about 200 kilometers southwest of Sicily, about 120 km from Tunisia, part of the province of Agrigento in Sicily. The maximum extension of Lampedusa is 11 kilometers and a maximum width of about 3.2 km. The island and rises 133 meters above sea level, and is geologically part of Africa.

In political terms, Lampedusa had several conflicts throughout history to take over the island, the Greeks and Romans and Alvengiwn Alsrasin (or Sarakinos, the term used by Europeans to refer to Arabs in the Middle Ages, and the indication of the Fatimids as well) and Alorgoignyn, assuming control of Lampedusa to take it as a base for the invasion of Africa.

And most of the population of Lampedusa, who number about 500 thousand people, in the only city on the island and which also bears the name of «Lampedusa», living in the African way of life with an European style, rather than Italy, you see the kids playing ball on the ground paved with stones in front of the Mayor’s Office , or some men have stood chatting with the side of a vehicle to sell vegetables, or women have their babies, however, they were taken away in a hurry.

Rainfall is the main source of water on the island, in addition to olive trees and palm trees, seasonal spread cacti and fig trees in abundance. The visitor encounters here and there some of the gardens planted with vegetables, and some goats, land is there are not suitable for agriculture or livestock. The main source of income for the islanders is fishing and tourism.

Tourism has been hit a lot against the backdrop of reports on the camps stockpiled illegal immigrants on the island. Complain Pilardelo Emmanuel, which relies on income on trips in his boat or rent apartments, «Easter holiday in the past, we have between 300 and 500 of the inmates, according to the weather, but that year did not go beyond the number 30 inmates».

However, it seems that things are changing, as the camps harboring illegal immigrants, or intruders, is empty since mid-May 2009, since the Italian government decided, in cooperation with Libya, repatriation of illegal immigrants from Africa before set foot in the Italian territory.

According to the «German Press Agency» under the repatriation program implemented by the Italian government to severe criticism, where it says a lot of international relief organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was a violation of the Geneva Refugee Convention of 1951.

In any case, «Sparci» a term used to describe refugees falling wooden boats stacked with «economic refugees», i.e., those who migrate for purely economic grounds to decline dramatically, and as a result, reverse the spread of military and police forces on the island, after the tourists in Lampedusa started to believe that the island came under the occupation!!.

Knowing  that during 2008 there were 32 thousand of the wretched Africans stranded on the island, the gateway to Europe!!.

 
There are hundreds of fishing boats destroyed by the waves of the sea, has been built on top of each other in the «Simitro del Barchi», (the tomb of boats), and there are east of the port, a monument called the «Porta de Europa», designed by Italian artist memos Palladino, the monument commemorates the memory of the countless numbers of Africans who died in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach European soil.