Piantedosi pledges commitment to Lampedusa

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 25 - Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi on Tuesday pledged his commitment to addressing the difficulties faced by local authorities in managing the number of migrants and refugees arriving by sea on Lampedusa.
    "I promise you that starting from the day after tomorrow, when we meet in Rome, we will already try to have answers," Piantedosi told Lampedusa Mayor Filippo Mannino after a brief visit with Valerio Valenti, head of the Interior Ministry's Department for Civil Liberties and Immigration and newly appointed commissioner delegate for the state of emergency for migrants, to the tiny Sicilian island that is bearing the brunt of the recent uptick in sea arrivals from north Africa.
    "We have to give him a hand. We have to find a way, an extraordinary one of course, to give him a hand," Piantedosi then said to Agrigento Prefect Maria Rita Cocciufa.
    "We are asking (Mannino) to perform the role of reception, give or take a thousand (arrivals) since (Lampedusa) is the first gateway to Italy and to Europe," concluded Piantedosi.
    During the visit Piantedosi and Valenti met with local authorities and visited the hotspot, which early Tuesday was hosting nearly 2,700 people against a formal capacity of just under 400 due to the arrival of over 1,500 migrants and refugees since midnight on Sunday. (ANSA).