by Claudine Renaud
LAMPEDUSA, Italy, Aug 2 (AFP) - Another small boat packed with exhausted Africans was escorted ashore by the Italian coastguard early Monday, the latest in a wave of migrants to Europe which shows no sign of letting up.
The group of 26 people, including six women, were visibly drained by their voyage from the Libyan coast. Like the hundreds arriving before them over the weekend, they were immediately transferred to the island's overcrowded immigrant reception centre.
"They told us they set out from Somalia by truck to Sudan, before passing through Niger and into Libya, where they remained for several months organising their passage to Italy," a police source told AFP.
Italy's Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu recently claimed that Libya was hosting up to two million African migrants who were using the country as a launchpad to reach Europe.
Rome last year signed a cooperation accord with Tripoli in a bid to crack down on illegal immigration, but the desperate continue to reach Italian shores.
Thousands fall prey to unscrupulous people traffickers who arrange their passage, often aboard unseaworthy craft. The going rate for the trip is around 1,500 dollars (1,200 euros).
Police sources told AFP that if their nationality can be proved, the group may be granted refugee status because of continuing conflict in lawless Somalia.
That is unlikely to be the case for the more than 300 mostly Egyptian immigrants who came ashore here aboard four vessels early Saturday. They face immediate repatriation under Italy's strict immigration laws and a cooperation pact between Rome and Cairo.
Many land on Lampedusa, Italy's most southerly island, because of its location just 80 nautical miles from the African coast.
Italian authorities have mobilised 60 men to patrol the sea around Lampedusa, including the coastguard, Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza customs police, each with a retinue of fast motor launches, occasionally backed by aircraft surveillance.
But they are fighting a losing battle to stem a seemingly endless tide of human flotsam drifting north and east from Africa.
In all, more than 1,150 would-be immigrants have arrived here in the last week, equivalent to nearly a quarter of the local population.
The contingent of Italian coastguard, Carabinieri and customs police based here are at full stretch to cope with the influx, particularly as people traffickers fully exploit maritime law.
"It's not just an immigration problem but also one of saving human life at sea," said Coastguard Commandant Michele Niosi.
"There are international rules which go beyond immigration laws. The traffickers send us loaded craft which are impossible to turn away, because even if these people have no right to enter Italy, our first duty is to help them survive the sea."
Last Wednesday Italian immigration authorities here airlifted 500 people to temporary reception centres on the mainland.
Around 100 people were ferried to the Italian mainland on Sunday morning to ease congestion at Lampedusa's small reception centre.
The centre -- where the immigrants are given first aid, food, water and a bed while being fingerprinted and photographed -- is designed to house 190 people, but is often overcrowded.
On Monday morning, more than 250 people were being accommodated there.
"Most of them, in theory, are facing immediate expulsion," a coastguard officer told AFP. "But in practice the reception centres have two months to establish their nationality, working with the consulates."
"If they don't succeed, they receive a card and are free to go off and swell the ranks of trinket sellers.
"What you see here is the new generation of Europeans."