With the help of a local fishing boat, hundreds of migrants were transferred on Saturday to a ferry from a tiny Italian island to relieve severe overcrowding during the pandemic at a residence for asylum-seekers. The vessel was one of several chartered by the Italian government, after Lampedusa’s mayor and Sicily’s governor complained about the risk of spreading COVID-19. After so many migrants arrived this summer, some of them rescued at sea, others reaching the island’s shores without help, Lampedusa’s migrant center held 2,000 people despite a capacity of less than 200.
