Because of its geographical position, Sicily is one of the points of entry to Europe for the African migration. Since the nineties the coast of Trapani and Lampedusa have known the first landings of Tunisians, and then the citizens of North Africa and the whole of sub-Saharan Africa who reached Tunisia to sail to Lampedusa. The citizens of Asia,instead, flew first to Malta and then were illegally boarded on old boats that took them on the coast of eastern Sicily

Lybia is the last country of transit to get to Italy. Departures are above all concentrated along the coast between Tripoli and Zuwarah. In Sicily, most of the migrants arrive in Lampedusa, but landings are more rare than we can imagine

The island of Lampedusa in the province of Agrigento, is the largest of the Pelagie archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. With an area of ​​ 20.2 km ², is the sixth largest of the islands of Sicily. Administratively, together with Linosa, they form the municipality of Lampedusa and Linosa of which and it is the municipal seat. The island has a long shape (about 12 km to 3 km wide).It is closer to the coast of Tunisia than to the Italian ones having a distance of 113 km from the African coast. Sicily (Porto Empedocles) is 205 km far instead. The prevailing climate is Mediterranean and has features of transition to the desert climate. Summers are usually hot and very dry and winters are rainy and relatively mild, rainfall is still very low, remaining on average between 300 and 350 mm annually. The island is a nature reserve and is part of the Marine Protected Pelagie Islands”. The Spiaggia dei Conigli (beach of Rabbit) is one of the few sites in the Mediterranean where the Caretta caretta sea turtles lay their eggs.

Lampedusa has been a stopping place for Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs who have left evident traces of their passage. The Romans took advantage of Lampedusa to build a factory for fish processing and the production of “ garum”, a fish sauce widely used in imperial times. The Arabs are the ones who left more records on this island because they used it as a landing during their pirate raids, even long after the official expulsion from Sicily. Thereafter, for a long period, the island remained quiet waiting for new inhabitants. In 1630, Prince Giulio Tomasi di Lampedusa and Linosa, ancestor of the author of “Il Gattopardo”, was honored by the King of Spain to this noble title. In 1760 it was colonized by six French followed, after sixteen years, by a Maltese family. Later a succession of small groups of farmers headed by Maltese and British too the island. Even the Russians, tried to buy the island to set up a colony. A century later, the family asked Tomasi Bourbon adequate funding to build in the islands the facilities needed for restocking. In 1800 the family of Tomasi gave the Pelagie to Ferdinand II of Bourbon. The king was able to make the area active and productive and settled about 150 inhabitants of Pantelleria to Lampedusa who introduced i the dammusi, typical buidings of their island,in Lampedusa

In 1860, the islanders became servants of the Kingdom of Italy was totally disregarded of the island.In 1872 he implanted there a penal colony, which was abolished only in the next century.

Since the late nineties of the last century, Lampedusa has become a major destination of African migration routes in the Mediterranean.

By the term routes of the African migrants in the Mediterranean are meant all the migration flows which have crossed the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe since the early nineties,. The phenomenon of immigration by sea has increased hand in hand with the closure of the borders of European countries following the adoption of a system of Visa restrictions particularly to poor countries. The sea is crossed on makeshift boats, often old fishing boats, fiberglass boats or rafts. The main points of entry are the Spanish, Italian and Greek coast. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the flows are mixed, that is, economic migrants and political refugees. Migration in the Mediterranean make for an illicit turnover of hundreds of millions euros each year. The price of the trips varies from border to border, somewhere between 500 and 2,000 dollars.

The device of sea patrols, involving Coast Guard, Navy and Guardia di Finanza, means that nearly all boats are intercepted at sea and then escorted to Lampedusa.

Migrants are detained for a period that can range from 2 to 15 days in a reception centre, from where they will be posted in the reception centres scattered throughout the Italian territory. The use of Lampedusa clearinghouse is due to the fact that the island is the southernmost town and the Italian State.

Today the situation on the island has become very critical as a result of the recent events happened in Egypt and Libya.

The reception centre is home to more than 3000 migrants compared with a limit of 800 seats. The island's mayor worried about the situation, has renewed its appeal to national and European institutions to come to the aid of Lampedusa, to preserving "an area that bases its economy on tourism."