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African refugees in Calabria

John Laurenson, Camini, ItalyNovember 30, 2013

A small group of refugees who arrived in Lampedusa this summer have just been moved into empty houses on the Italian mainland. For many of them, the memories of why they left their home countries are still raw.

https://p.dw.com/p/1AQfq

The deaths of over four hundred people off the island of Lampedusa in October this year highlighted the plight of asylum-seekers and other migrants trying to enter the EU.

Many of the refugees arriving in southern Europe come from Africa or the Middle East. Most of them have endured terrible conditions in making the dangerous and expensive sea journey across the Mediterranean.

The numbers of asylum-seekers landing on the Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa have increased this year three-fold since 2012. Some villages in Calabria, on the southern coast of mainland Italy, have taken in immigrants.