It's poignant that when the government that is supposed to protect them instead betrays them, people are forced to resort to these desperate measures:
Residents of the Italian island of Lampedusa, which has been under a constant influx of migrants from Tunisia since mid-January, have blocked the island’s harbor in protest Tuesday. Residents blocked a street and a pier of the port shouting nobody will pass there. There were also protests over immigration at a local council meeting. A few claimed illegal immigrants had robbed them and that they also fear epidemics and that Lampedusa will become Alcatraz. The Italian Cabinet of Ministers is said to be discussing options for resettling the immigrants from Lampedusa to other provinces of the country. Earlier on Monday, fishermen towed empty boats seized from illegal migrants across the entrance of Lampedusa's harbor in an attempt to prevent any other vessels carrying North Africans from reaching the tiny island. More than 3,000 new migrants have arrived on the island of 5,000 residents in the last three days alone, with the total number of migrants topping 15,000 since mid-January.
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