Thursday, April 21, 2011
The initial burst of the current wave of migrations northwards across the Mediterranean began in January after an uprising in Tunisia forced the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In the wake of the fighting, refugees fleeing violence and destitution crossed the narrow straits between the Tunisian coast and the islands of Lampedusa, Malta, Pantelleria, and Sicily.
After the Egyptian crisis broke and the first unrest appeared in Libya, a more general flow of refugees began. Refugees moved both east and west, depending on the intensity of the fighting in a given location, and accumulated in refugee camps near the Egyptian-Libyan border or the Libyan-Tunisian border. The largest camps are in Tunisia just across the border from Libya, where hundreds of thousands of displaced persons are being held. Many of them are planning to cross the Mediterranean to what they hope will be a better life in Italy.
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